Nebraska Considers Ending Death Penalty

Nebraska could become the first conservative state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty, under proposals being considered by politicians.

An initial vote earlier this year to repeal the law has sparked optimism among capital punishment opponents, although Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has moved to block the change.

The state last executed someone in 1997 and currently has 11 men on death row.

Democrats and Republicans have formed an unlikely alliance to try and get the death penalty repealed.

Democrats have cited racial disparities in who is sentenced to death and highlighted the dangers of executing an innocent person, while Republicans have pointed out legal obstacles that have prevented the state executing anyone for 18 years.

Senator Colby Coash said the death penalty wastes taxpayers' money.

He said: "You always want to feel as a legislator that you're sticking up for the victims.

"I don't speak for the victims, but how is it justice if a state imposes a sentence that it's never going to carry out?"

The last conservative state to abolish the death penalty was North Dakota in 1973.

In the last six years, four more liberal states have ended capital punishment: New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012 and Maryland in 2013. Thirty two states still have death penalty laws.

Legal experts have said if Nebraska repeals the law, it could prompt other states to act as well.

Frank Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "If New Hampshire wanted to abolish the death penalty, Nebraska could set a terrific precedent.

"But it probably wouldn't work in Texas or Missouri."

In 2008, a state Supreme Court ruling outlawed the use of the electric chair in executions.

Nebraska switched to lethal injections, but the slow rate of processing inmate appeals meant executions were prevented for so long its stock of sodium thiopental expired and it could not replace reserves.

Nebraska has executed four inmates since reinstating the death penalty in 1973. One of its death row inmates has been there for 35 years.

In March, the Nebraska legislature voted 30-13 to repeal the penalty, but politicians have to vote on it twice more and Republican Governor Mr Ricketts has promised to veto it. Some 33 votes would be needed to defeat a filibuster attempting to block the bill.

A recent Pew Research Centre study found 55% of Americans support the death penalty - down from 62% in 2011.

It comes as Richard Glossip, a death row inmate in Oklahoma , could become the first American to be executed using nitrogen gas.