Post by Maggie on Jul 20, 2006 14:35:36 GMT -5
Nebraska high court urged to rule on electric chair
By KEVIN O'HANLON
Associated Press writer
LINCOLN, Neb. -- With Nebraska the only state with electrocution as its sole mean of execution, the state Supreme Court is being urged to rule in a year-old appeal alleging the use of the electric chair is tantamount to torture.
"The questions of whether Nebraska's ... method of execution is valid under our federal constitution ... will impact the ultimate enforcement of all pending and future capital sentences imposed under current Nebraska law," said a motion filed Friday by Attorney General Jon Bruning's office.
The appeal was filed by death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore, who says Nebraska's use of the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Moore's lawyer, Alan Peterson, declined to comment on Bruning's motion.
But he said earlier in arguments to the court: "Now, no other state mandates that humans face the horror of death by internal burning and shock, with the well-known history of bungled, smoking failures of the century-old technique."
Electrocution "involves more than mere extinguishment of life and will subject defendant to needless agony, physical suffering, torture, mutilation, disfigurement, and degradation," Peterson said.
No American court has ever ruled that electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
But as legal challenges were mounted against its use in recent years, others states adopted alternative methods such as lethal injection as a means of execution.
"Nebraska ... now is alone in the United States, actually in the whole world, in still requiring electrocution," Peterson said. "Nebraska is the last holdout for this universally rejected and condemned sole means of capital punishment."
Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown argued that nine other states still have electrocution as an alternative method of execution.
Virginia death-row inmate Brandon Hedrick, who is set for execution next week for the rape and murder of a young mother, has chosen to die in the electric chair.
In 2003, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha stopped short of declaring electrocution unconstitutional in vacating the death sentence of Charles Jess Palmer for a 1979 murder in Grand Island. Bataillon said he had been prepared to rule the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment.
Three people -- Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams -- have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.
Palmer's lawyer presented evidence and post-mortem photographs of the three in arguing his case.
Coroner reports show Joubert suffered a 4-inch blistering burn on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears. Williams had a "bubble blister" the size of a baseball on his left calf. Williams had pronounced "charring" on both sides of a knee and the top of the head. An execution witness reported seeing smoke emanating from Williams' knee and head.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of Omaha cab drivers Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr. and Maynard D. Helegland during two robberies.
Efforts to replace the electric chair with lethal injection have stalled in the Legislature.
www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/07/20/news/regional/a35115d7fbbfe94c872571b0006e47c3.txt
By KEVIN O'HANLON
Associated Press writer
LINCOLN, Neb. -- With Nebraska the only state with electrocution as its sole mean of execution, the state Supreme Court is being urged to rule in a year-old appeal alleging the use of the electric chair is tantamount to torture.
"The questions of whether Nebraska's ... method of execution is valid under our federal constitution ... will impact the ultimate enforcement of all pending and future capital sentences imposed under current Nebraska law," said a motion filed Friday by Attorney General Jon Bruning's office.
The appeal was filed by death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore, who says Nebraska's use of the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Moore's lawyer, Alan Peterson, declined to comment on Bruning's motion.
But he said earlier in arguments to the court: "Now, no other state mandates that humans face the horror of death by internal burning and shock, with the well-known history of bungled, smoking failures of the century-old technique."
Electrocution "involves more than mere extinguishment of life and will subject defendant to needless agony, physical suffering, torture, mutilation, disfigurement, and degradation," Peterson said.
No American court has ever ruled that electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
But as legal challenges were mounted against its use in recent years, others states adopted alternative methods such as lethal injection as a means of execution.
"Nebraska ... now is alone in the United States, actually in the whole world, in still requiring electrocution," Peterson said. "Nebraska is the last holdout for this universally rejected and condemned sole means of capital punishment."
Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown argued that nine other states still have electrocution as an alternative method of execution.
Virginia death-row inmate Brandon Hedrick, who is set for execution next week for the rape and murder of a young mother, has chosen to die in the electric chair.
In 2003, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha stopped short of declaring electrocution unconstitutional in vacating the death sentence of Charles Jess Palmer for a 1979 murder in Grand Island. Bataillon said he had been prepared to rule the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment.
Three people -- Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams -- have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.
Palmer's lawyer presented evidence and post-mortem photographs of the three in arguing his case.
Coroner reports show Joubert suffered a 4-inch blistering burn on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears. Williams had a "bubble blister" the size of a baseball on his left calf. Williams had pronounced "charring" on both sides of a knee and the top of the head. An execution witness reported seeing smoke emanating from Williams' knee and head.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of Omaha cab drivers Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr. and Maynard D. Helegland during two robberies.
Efforts to replace the electric chair with lethal injection have stalled in the Legislature.
www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/07/20/news/regional/a35115d7fbbfe94c872571b0006e47c3.txt