In May of 2015, the Nebraska Unicameral passed a bill that banned the death penalty in the state.
Since then, Nebraskans for the Death Penalty obtained 166,692 signatures to place the death penalty issue on the November ballot.
Voters will decide whether or not to keep the ban in place when they head to the polls.
September’s Omaha Press Club Noon Forum focused on the death penalty and featured presentations from Robert Evnen, co-founder of Nebraskans for the Death Penalty and Senator Colby Coash, co-chair of Retain a Just Nebraska.
At the end of the forum, the two were asked to respond to the argument that innocent people have been put to death under the death penalty. Evnen says there are no claims that anyone currently on death row in Nebraska is innocent.
"We have to take a look what happens in our state. Then when you look at what’s happening across the country and you have these examples of others. Well maybe there are 156 people that claim to have been exonerated but for 90% of those people, it isn’t that they were found innocent. It’s that a court concluded the evidence was not sufficient. That’s a lot different than saying, ‘We know they’re innocent’”
Senator Coash had a slightly different take on the issue.
"This happens and it’s a risk. Many of us in the legislature have talked about it. I’ve met people who’ve been on death row, who were close to execution, and then DNA exonerated them. Criminal justice is full of people. So it’s full of fallible humans. And it is that risk that weighed on many of our minds as to whether or not this is a punishment we ought to have on our books.”
You can hear the Omaha Press Club Noon Forum on the Death Penalty in its entirety on Thursday, November 3rd at Noon.