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Show A10 HERALD DAILY Sunday, February W, 2008 Nebraska high court bans electrocutions Nate Jenkins THE White said, "We're exploring all our options." . ASSOCIATED PRESS Gov. Dave Heineman's A year LINCOLN. Neb. spokeswoman, Jen Rae Hein, ago, Carey Dean Moore wrote said Heineman is considering a short letter to the Nebraska introducing a bill this legisla-- , Supreme Court from his cell on tive session to replace electrocution with lethal injection. death row. "Today the court has assert"Appellant wishes to be exed itself improperly as a policyecuted," it said. On Friday, the court said maker," Heineman said. "Once electrocution is unconstituagain, this activist court has tional, a stunning response to ignored its own precedent and Dean, nine others on death row the precedent set by the U S. and those who question wheth- Supreme Court to continue its er the electric chair constitutes assault on the Nebraska death cruel and unusual punishment. penalty." "Condemned prisoners The state's high court said must not be tortured to death, electrocution violated the Nebraska Constitution rather regardless of their crimes," Judge William Connolly wrote than the U.S. Constitution, a in the 1 opinion for the court. move that one expert on y The decision erased Nebraslaw said appeared to shield its decision from federal ka's distinction as the only, state with electrocution as its , review But Chief Justice Mike sole means of execution. State Heavican wrote in dissent that courts are left with the ability to the majority's stated reliance sentence people to death but no on Nebraska's constitution is way to carry out the penalty. misleading because the court The high court made the based its decision entirely on : federal precedent. ruling in the case of Raymond Mata Jr., convicted for the The court stressed that its 1999 kidnapping and killing ruling did not strike down the of Adam Gomez death penalty --- just electrocuof Scottsbluff, the son of his tion as the method. Approving former girlfriend. Parts of another method, however, could prove difficult. the boy's body were found at Mata's home in a freezer and Past attempts to replace elecdog bowl. Bone fragments also trocution with lethal injection in were recovered from the stom- Nebraska have failed, largely ach of Mata's dog. due to the efforts of the LegisThe court said in its opinion lature's staunchest opponent of that evidence shows that eleccapital punishment, Sen. Ernie trocution inflicts "intense pain Chambers of Omaha. and agonizing suffering" and Chambers pointed out Friday that it "has proven itself to be that a bill to replace the execua dinosaur more befitting the tion method would have to be approved by the Judiciary laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison. Committee, That's unlikely, he There are conflicting views said, given that on Thursday on whether federal courts the committee sent to the full might agree to hear an appeal. Legislature a bill that would Attorney General Jon Bruning repeal the death penalty. said he would ask the state "It would be stupid and a court to reconsider its decision, waste of time and strictly for and spokeswoman Leah Bucco- - political purposes to introduce a "v. ; 6-- V- --j "I o r ! I death-penalt- ; vr Nebraska Dept. of Correctional Services the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services shows the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb. This image released by bill to replace electrocution with lethal injection," Chambers said. Last year, a state bill to re- peal the death penalty failed after first round debate by just one vote. Bills must go through three rounds before they get final approval. Legal experts said it doesnt make sense for Nebraska to rush to establish a new method of executioa Courts across the country have put off several executions pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Cour which agreed -- in September to hear a chal- lenge filed by two Kentucky inmates over that death-ro- state's n method. The use of the electric chair began to decline when Okla- -' homa adopted lethal injection in 1977, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1976, when executions resumed following a U.S. Supreme Court ban, there have been 154 electrocutions and more than 900 lethal injections, Dieter said. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia still allow electrocution, but some of those'states do not allow newly condemned inmates to choose it. The last person to be executed by electrocution was Daryl Holton on Sept. 12. in Tennessee. Holt on, who confessed to murdering four children in 1997, chose the electric chair over lethal injection. Moore was to have been electrocuted in May, but the Nebraska Supreme Court stopped it less than a week before his scheduled date because of the case it ruled on Friday. lethal-injectio- I Associated Press writers Oskar Garcia, Josh Funk and Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report. Best Open Fit writers get first look at deal Hollywood Technology Value Lynn Elber TV season and moviemaking and took the shine off Hollywood's awards season. "I believe it is a good deal. I LOS ANGELES -Ho- llywood am going to be recommending writers got their first look Saturday at details of a this deal to our membership," Michael Winship, president of tentative agreement with stud dios that could put the the Writers Guild of America, entertainment indusEast, told reporters before the try back to work, an offer the New York meeting at a Times union's East Coast president Square hotel. said he was endorsing. Winship said afterward that ' A summary of the proposed he was encouraged by the deal crafted this week was membership's response, "We had a very lively discusposted on the Writers Guild sion. I'm happy with what hapof America's Web site hours before members attended pened. ... At the moment, I feel meetings in New York and Los strongly it (the proposed deal) has a strong chance of going Angeles. 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