Post by thinkinkmesa on Feb 8, 2008 21:14:32 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/us/08cnd-penalty.html?ex=1203138000&en=0e09082d9354cafb&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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February 8, 2008
Nebraska Supreme Court Outlaws Electric Chair
By ADAM LIPTAK
The electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday, effectively suspending executions in the only state that made sole use of the practice, once the dominant form of execution in the United States.
The court, in a 6-to-1 decision, ruled that electrocution, the only method of execution used in the state, violates the state constitution. “The evidence shows that electrocution inflicts intense pain and agonizing suffering,” Justice William Connolly wrote for the majority.
The state’s attorney general, Jon Bruning, said he would “move to the legislative process to get a new method of execution.” Working on a clean slate, Nebraska may opt for a form of lethal injection that does not rely on the combination of three chemicals that is the subject of a pending challenge in the United States Supreme Court. Indeed, it may explore entirely different methods of executions.
No other state relied solely on the electrocution, but seven allow at least some inmates to choose it instead of lethal injection. Two other states, Illinois and Oklahoma, have designated electrocution as the fallback method should lethal injections be ruled unconstitutional.
The United States Supreme Court has never held a method of execution to be unconstitutional, and in an 1890 it appeared to say that electrocutions did not violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The court will soon decide a case on the standard to be used in assessing the constitutionality of the three chemicals used in lethal injections.
The challenge in Nebraska was brought by Raymond Mata Jr., who was convicted in 2000 of kidnapping and murdering Adam Gomez, the three-year-old son of a former girlfriend. Mr. Mata dismembered the body, and human bone fragments were found in the stomach of Mr. Mata’s dog.
“We recognize the temptation to make the prisoner suffer, just as the prisoner made an innocent victim suffer,” Justice Connolly wrote. “But it is the hallmark of a civilized society that we punish cruelty without practicing it. Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes.”
A provision of Nebraska’s constitution tracks the Eighth Amendment of the federal Constitution in forbidding cruel and unusual punishment. But in its decision on Friday the court said it relied only on the state constitution.
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February 8, 2008
Nebraska Supreme Court Outlaws Electric Chair
By ADAM LIPTAK
The electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday, effectively suspending executions in the only state that made sole use of the practice, once the dominant form of execution in the United States.
The court, in a 6-to-1 decision, ruled that electrocution, the only method of execution used in the state, violates the state constitution. “The evidence shows that electrocution inflicts intense pain and agonizing suffering,” Justice William Connolly wrote for the majority.
The state’s attorney general, Jon Bruning, said he would “move to the legislative process to get a new method of execution.” Working on a clean slate, Nebraska may opt for a form of lethal injection that does not rely on the combination of three chemicals that is the subject of a pending challenge in the United States Supreme Court. Indeed, it may explore entirely different methods of executions.
No other state relied solely on the electrocution, but seven allow at least some inmates to choose it instead of lethal injection. Two other states, Illinois and Oklahoma, have designated electrocution as the fallback method should lethal injections be ruled unconstitutional.
The United States Supreme Court has never held a method of execution to be unconstitutional, and in an 1890 it appeared to say that electrocutions did not violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The court will soon decide a case on the standard to be used in assessing the constitutionality of the three chemicals used in lethal injections.
The challenge in Nebraska was brought by Raymond Mata Jr., who was convicted in 2000 of kidnapping and murdering Adam Gomez, the three-year-old son of a former girlfriend. Mr. Mata dismembered the body, and human bone fragments were found in the stomach of Mr. Mata’s dog.
“We recognize the temptation to make the prisoner suffer, just as the prisoner made an innocent victim suffer,” Justice Connolly wrote. “But it is the hallmark of a civilized society that we punish cruelty without practicing it. Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes.”
A provision of Nebraska’s constitution tracks the Eighth Amendment of the federal Constitution in forbidding cruel and unusual punishment. But in its decision on Friday the court said it relied only on the state constitution.