[JURIST] Nebraska lawmakers voted 30-13 Thursday in favor of legislation [LB 268 materials] that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment in first-degree murder cases. Nebraska currently has 11 men sitting on death row but no way of executing them because its supply of sodium thiopental expired in December 2013. Thursday’s debate included death penalty supporters who told tales of violent killings involving a bank robbery. Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha, as sponsor of the Nebraska measure, has fought for the last 40 years to eliminate capital punishment. The only time Nebraska Legislature passed a repeal measure was in 1979, but it was vetoed by then governor Charles Thone. The bill must pass through two more rounds of voting in the unicameral legislature, but if support holds up, death penalty opponents would have a sufficient number of votes to supersede a promised veto by Governor Pete Ricketts (R) [official website]. Nebraska last executed someone in 1997.

Lethal injection [JURIST archive] and execution method issues have been the hot topics of the death penalty debate for the past few years. Earlier this month the Tennessee Supreme Court postponed the execution [JURIST report] of four inmates on death row while it determines whether current protocols are constitutional, thus effectively halting all executions in the state. Also in April the Delaware Senate voted to repeal the death penalty [JURIST report], but the legislation includes an exemption for the 15 inmates currently on Delaware’s death row. In March Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill [JURIST report] to restore the firing squad as a method of execution, making Utah one of the only states with that option. Oklahoma became the epicenter [JURIST report] of the lethal injection drug debate last year after the death of Clayton Lockett, a death row inmate who died of an apparent attack minutes after doctors called off a failed attempt to execute him.