The Death of the American Death Penalty: States Still Leading the Way

8 | Recent Abolition Near Misses: Nebraska and Maryland

106 Maryland and Nebraska became unlikely participants in the abolition movement of the post-Furman era more by the legislative skill and charisma of core actors than by the structural foundations of the states. Execution levels in Nebraska—with its western-leaning geography, economy, and culture—reflected those in agrarian, sparsely populated, highly homogeneous western states. With the rise of a gifted and tenacious state senator, however, Nebraska became a hotbed of abolitionist debate for three decades. And if the abolition effort in Nebraska was unlikely , a strong abolitionist movement in Maryland should have been impossible. In reality, Maryland is currently involved in an abolition narrative that will probably halt executions, if the state does not abolish the death penalty. nebraska The history of legal executions in Nebraska is relatively short in comparison with the history of states further to the east. Since 1879 the state has carried out thirty-seven legally sanctioned executions, three of which were post-Furman.1 The electrocution of Charles Starkweather on 25 June 1959 remains, without a doubt, Nebraska’s most infamous execution. The nineteen-year-old man’s eight-day drive across the Nebraska countryside during January 1958 that resulted in the murder of ten people has provided plots for books, movies, and songs.2 Since the enactment of Nebraska’s post-Furman death penalty statute in 1973, the state’s juries have handed down thirty-three death sentences . Three Nebraska inmates have been executed; four died on death row; thirteen had their sentences commuted; and one had his sentenced vacated. Eleven men remain on death row, awaiting either execution or appellate relief.3 8 Recent Abolition near Misses nebraska and Maryland near misses in nebraska and maryland 107 Enter Senator Ernie Chambers Even a cursory review of Nebraska’s post-Furman death penalty narrative attests to the central role that human agency played in keeping executions on the minds of legislators. Senator Ernie Chambers entered the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature in 1970. A barber, Chambers holds a law degree from Creighton University. Unlike the majority of his colleagues , he did not supplement his $12,000 salary with other income.4 Thus, he led a near-poverty existence. In a state that is less than 5 percent African American, he remained the sole black legislator until 2008, when a newly enacted term-limit law directed at him forced him out. Referring to the forty-nine member Senate, he stated: “By getting rid of me, they got rid of the other forty-eight.”5 A progressive, he consistently and overtly supported pro-choice legislation .6 His efforts in the 1980s moved Nebraska to lead all states in divesting from companies that did business with apartheid-era South Africa.7 Abolishing the state’s death penalty, however, drove his legislative efforts. During every legislative session between 1976 and 2008, Chambers introduced a bill calling for the abolition of executions. Although Nebraska’s unicameral legislature allowed the state to assume a leadership role in reducing the penalty for marijuana possession in the late 1960s,8 that legislature structure did little to facilitate Chambers ’s efforts to abolish the death penalty. Rather than coalition building , his legislative strengths were skillful oratory, humanistic values, the power of persuasion, and an unwavering belief in the righteousness of the cause. As a consequence, he often found himself at odds with his abolitionist allies, the Catholic and Jewish communities. 1979: Replace Executions with Thirty-Year Prison Sentences LB 262, Chambers’s first legislative achievement in the area, brought Nebraska closer to abolishing the death penalty than any of his subsequent efforts. The legislative history of LB 262 began on 28 February 1979 when the Judiciary Committee held public hearings on death penalty repeal.There, Chambers noted that all eight Nebraska death row inmates had been sent there for murdering white people. This fact, he argued, illustrated the “freakishness” and “arbitrariness” of the way that Nebraska’s death penalty was applied. Martin Gardner, an associate professor of law at the University of Nebraska, argued that the death penalty promotes murder because of the “glamour” of executions. He stated: “I am a Mormon, and my church opposes abortion, therefore I favor the life of the fetus as well as the convicted murderer.” Sam Walker, an associate Quasiabolition 108 professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, argued that there is no evidence of deterrence in a growing body of...