Nebraska high court approves electric chair
State is only one to use electrocution as sole method of execution

LINCOLN, Neb. - The state Supreme Court on Friday rejected an inmate’s appeal that the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, leaving Nebraska as still the only state with electrocution as its sole means of execution.

No American court has ever ruled that electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. But as legal challenges were mounted against its use, others states adopted alternative methods of execution, primarily lethal injection.

“Nebraska ... now is alone in the United States, actually in the whole world, in still requiring electrocution,” Carey Dean Moore’s lawyer, Alan Peterson, argued to the court. “Nebraska is the last holdout for this universally rejected and condemned sole means of capital punishment.”

In its ruling, the court noted that Moore was previously rejected in his bid to have the electric chair deemed cruel and unusual punishment. The court said it "need not entertain a second or successive motions for similar relief on behalf of the same prisoner."

Under state law, Moore also had to persuade justices to throw out his death sentence in order to win his appeal. He was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of two Omaha cab drivers.

Peterson did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Nine states give a choice
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, nine states allow some or all condemned inmates to choose between lethal injection and another execution method. Ten states have the electric chair but only Nebraska uses it exclusively.

Some inmates choose execution of lethal injection, which has recently spurred several legal challenges over whether the drugs used actually prevent pain. Last week in Virginia, Brandon Hedrick, 27, chose to become the first person in the U.S. to die in the electric chair in more than two years.

Moore’s appeal was based on a change in execution protocol made by the state in 2004. Prison officials used one continuous jolt of electricity for 15 seconds instead of four separate jolts after a judge said the practice appeared to cause undue suffering.

Three people have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.

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Who wants fried chicken? hahahaha, I am totally for the death penalty, actually I think we are TOO humane to these pychopaths. Some guy murders 10 people with a coat hanger (just an example) and he gets to "go peacefully" with a lethal injection and feels no pain. BULLCRAP! I want that MF'er to feel the same pain that the people he killed had to face. Call me cruel, call me what you will, but Americans are a bunch of PANSIES! Well have all this POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, omfg excuse me it's, "culturally sensitive" now, because we don't want to sound like we are doing it for political reasons, IT MAKES ME SICK! Americans are too afraid to speak their minds when it comes to anything dealing with race, creed, religion, sex, politics, preference, and a bunch of others topics that I cannot think of because I am typing with such emotion and anger. =p I am all for rehabilitaion in most cases, but murder is not one. You kill, you should be killed. Plain and simple. I really don't like the fact that my tax dollars are being spent on John Doe Cereal (hehe) Killer so he can have 37,000 appeals before he is finally put out of MY misery. (paying for the worthless POS) I hate the fact that prisons are so overcrowded that some inmates are being released early. Where do you think these criminals are going? YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD! Just take some time to look up sex-offenders in your local area, I bet you'll find more than one. http://www.familywatchdog.us/

-Ghost

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To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. -Henry David Thoreau

Knowledge is power.

I was once in favor of the death penalty. I am now against it since it has been proven several times over in past years that there were many death row inmates who were in fact innocent. The cases against some of them appeared iron clad until the advent of checking DNA evidence. Were it not for persistent and savvy lawyers in these cases, most of them would have been executed, although innocent. Overcrowding of prisons is a condition caused not simply because we have too many criminals in the country but it is also the result of criminilization of minor drug offenses. There are a lot of people who were busted for what used to be minor pot possession offenses but are now imprisonable crimes. I personnaly don't give a shit if someone smokes pot instead of drinking alcohol. Get these minor offenders out from behind bars and you will decrease the prison population by thousands.

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Turk Quid Pro Quo

While it is unfortunate that innocent persons have been executed, the number is so small that it is practically irrelevant. It is true that minor drug offenses carry a prison term, but I think that is absolutely necessary, even in cases involving marijuana. Drugs have been proven over and over again to be unhealthy and the long term effects of drug use are devestating. Marijuana slows reaction time, impairs judgement, and kills brain cells, just to name a few. Studies show (looking at US Justice Department website) that roughly 48% of Americans have at one time tried some type of drug, be it cocaine, crack, heroin, etc. Even more frieghtening is the fact that almost 70% of high-school seniors polled in 2005 reported some type of drug-use. Over 88% of these kids said it wouid be VERY EASY to obtain a number of drugs, with marijuana being the highest. The numbers remain the same for white kids and black kids, and in the urban and suburbans areas as well. Drug use among kids is on the rise and it leads to failure at school and possible failure at life. Turk, your "it's just a little pot" attitude is what is wrong with American pop-culture society today. Parents are too afraid to stand up to their children because they once (or even multiple times) tried drugs. It is never "alright" for someone to put these poisons into their body, the sooner and more often the younger people know this the better off we all will be.

-Ghost

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To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. -Henry David Thoreau

Knowledge is power.

There are many, many more crimes commited as a result of alcohol abuse than pot smoking. Most domestic violence cases are the result of a drunk. Had those people chosen to relax by taking a couple tokes of reefer, they would not have commenced to beat the shit out of eachother. Alcohol has many bad effects on people yet, it is legal. Pot may have some unwanted affects on the human body, just as alcohol but , it is the persons choice. Informed consent so to speak. Alcohol causes a huge strain on budget and public resources due its tendency to incite people toward violent incidents where pot tends to mellow people out and make them hungry. I think your numbers and logic of drug statistics are the typical ones that people who have been brainwashed into thinking all drugs are evil typically use in their argument. Things like the opiates and cocaine are too highly addictive to be made legal once again but pot is not bad. As for your thought that it is ok for a few innocent people to be put to death, well that kind of thinking smacks of the lack of a moral center.

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Turk Quid Pro Quo

I am against the death penalty. Bill O'Reilly turned me.

I would rather see a vicious killed worked to the bone with no freedom for 40 years than put through the extremely pricey death route. It seems to take 12+ years and over a million dollars to kill someone now a days.

I am for building some super prisons in Alaska in the middle of nowhere. You send the people convicted of the worst crimes. There would be no TV, no weight rooms, etc. If you were a good boy there would be books and something better than bread and water. It would be a miserable time, but less miserable of you were good.

I would also make it the #1 job for correctional workers. They would do a one-year tour, but would make $100,000 a year. Their would be a height/weight and martial arts requirement to work their. It would be a dream job for corrections officers and they would be bigger and badder than the inmates.

Just my opinion!

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Are we living in a real world when you quote stats from drug use in HS?

As far as I remembered drugs have been in the schools for as far as I can remember. We also had a Prez who smoked but never inhaled. This probably started for him in HS. The drugs are also in the middle schools.

As far as the death penalty. They need to expidite the executions to remove the waste from society. These predators who prey on kids and take their lives should be executed immediately folllowing the trial. They really do not need to waste time with rehab or appeals. Society is far better off with out them.

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Chill

Yeah...I think Hiker hit it on the head as far as expediting the sentances. Look at Ghost's original post...this guy did the crime in 1979! WTFO! That's 26 freaking years of 3 hots and a cot for this jackass!

I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty, but then I'm a bit of a dreamer and would love to see a world where we wouldn't have this level of crime. And don't go taking pot shots at my dream either! :-) It's mine, and I like it. Thing is though, if it was my daughter that got brutally raped and murdered, then I wouldn't even bat an eye lid. In fact, they'd have a hard time protecting him from me! So, call me sick, but if it came down to it, I'd throw the switch just to watch 'em fry.

Oh yeah...interesting debates on pot -v- alcohol. Personally, I hate laws that protect people from their own stupidity. Pot, alcohol, twinkies, Big Macs, riding without a helmet, and smoking are all equally bad for the tax payers because we may in the future have to support that person that abused their freedoms. But then, that's natural selection. If you abuse any of a million things in life, then it's going to be bad for you. So...where do we draw the line?

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Joeninpo

The tyrant custom, most grave Senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down

Death penalty is fine if the person is convicted by 12. Kill 'em within a year. Feeding them and their lawyers for 20 years is stupid. Present day procedures should include DNA tests, or whatever. Now the criminals are already getting smart, and planting DNA of others at the scene, carefully wearing gloves, etc. Soon DNA will prove nothing.
Alcohol can't be controlled. Prohibition didn't work. Pot will rot your brain just as quick or quicker. It has no redeeming features, but may reduce pain for already dying folks. Protect children by education as best you can. People who choose drugs of all sorts choose to take that chance:to suffer. We will continue to pay for their stupidity by higher taxes and medical expenses. I like the Electric Chair. If used properly, it is as humane as they deserve. A person who tortured someone to death should be killed slowly, perhaps over a Barbecue Pit!

I concur while the death penalty should be swift execution; however, no reasonable doubt should exist. While argument could be made for that is what the jury decides is flawed. The jury usually does not get all the facts of the case. There is legal maneuvering that occurs and some important facts are not permitted. This is wrong for obvious reasons.

I am not so sure that DNA will not be worth anything in the future. It is evidence to take into consideration nothing more. A closer look at the Urinalysis in the Army. I believe those that developed the program had it right. This was to be used as a tool for the commander not a guilty as tested tool. The chances of probability were in favor of the results there were some who were innocent and found guilty. The regulation only required the commander to initiate elimination actions. The soldier was usually guilty until proven innocent. Once you remove the human from the equation you have problems.

I believe DNA is in the same category as finger prints, dental records, as well as any other evidence that may be used.

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Chill