ONE MINUTE ON MURDER – NEBRASKANS DEFENDING THE DEATH PENALTY

            We, the comrades of Unit 1012, endorse and ally ourselves with this Pro Death Penalty/Victims’ Rights Group, One Minute On Murder. They are the Nebraskans who defend the death penalty. We will post an article from Senator Bill Kintner.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://fremonttribune.com/cass-news/opinion/legislators-muddy-moral-waters-in-debate-to-repeal-death-penalty/article_b39888e5-c1df-5f7a-aa91-e79bb90801d4.html

Legislators muddy moral waters in debate to repeal death penalty

April 21, 2015 6:45 pm  •  State Sen. Bill Kintner

Death. It is a sobering topic, no matter how it confronts us. Whether in old age or in youth, occurring by accident or due to a crime, death forces us to deal with our mortality and the bigger questions in life.

This was definitely true this last week as LB 268, a bill introduced by Ernie Chambers to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska, was discussed for about four hours during our first round of debate.

Unfortunately, a confused moral ethic, vote trading and much misleading information regarding the death penalty in Nebraska convinced many new senators, some who campaigned last fall in favor of keeping the death penalty, to join the target of their derision several weeks ago, Sen. Chambers. The legislative bill to repeal the death penalty was advanced to the second round of debate in the Unicameral.

Like the “Pied Piper,” Senator Chambers and his helpers succeeded in convincing a majority of senators to follow him and advance his repeal bill.

Many reasons were given by advocates for why Nebraska should repeal the death penalty. One of the major reasons offered was cost. Yet, none of the state data provided by the Attorney General or state and local agencies revealed any cost savings for the repeal bill.

Citing national studies and studies from other states, senators who support repealing the death penalty tried to convince each other that litigating a death penalty case is just far too expensive compared to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, evidence that this is the case in Nebraska is not there.

The proponents are absolutely false in the data and facts as they apply to Nebraska.

I trust our Attorney General, Governor Ricketts, and the views of our county attorneys and corrections professionals when it comes to the facts in our state and the need for the death penalty.

Besides, for the anti-death penalty crowd to complain that it is too expensive to litigate death penalty cases and that the death penalty is broken while throwing every legal “wrench” into the proverbial “gears” of our system for over thirty years is completely disingenuous.

To complain of more appeals and more costs while being the main cause of those appeals and costs presents a circular and despicable argument.

Another argument heard from the new senators, was “I’m consistently pro-life from conception to natural death, so I am for the state to getting out of the killing business.”

Well, that’s an interesting twist, and new definition of what it means to be pro-life. I always thought to be pro-life was to protect innocent life, not sadistic murderous depraved people from receiving their due penalty for violating God’s law of “Thou shall not murder”.

People are made in the image of God, and to murder an innocent human being is like murdering God in effigy. To equate all killing as wrong is to confuse the clear teaching of scripture from front to back, that human life is so precious in God’s sight that if you murder an innocent human being, it is just and right for government to potentially take your life.

That is a true pro-life ethic that protects the innocent and those who cannot protect themselves. It lifts up the value of human life by making it potentially very costly to violate our societal contract not to murder.

I truly believe if we want the Lord’s blessing on our nation, we must take the issue of the death penalty seriously. Scripture indicates that murder defiles a land and brings God’s judgment, unless the murderer is executed.

Those following their “Pied Piper” also brought up the argument that the death penalty is not a deterrent, because people are still murdering people.

The truth is; no one but God can know who it has deterred, because those that it has deterred we will never know about, precisely because they never followed through with first degree murder. To use that logic, we should repeal all laws because people keep breaking the law and there is not enough deterrence.

Sadly, we live in a fallen world where there will always be someone who chooses to take the life of another innocent person.

This leads us to what I believe is the most important aspect of our justice system: Striving to be just in all cases. Nebraska, overall, has a good record regarding capital and non-capital homicide cases according to a 2001-2002 study commissioned by the Nebraska Legislature. It looked at these cases from 1973 to 1999. The study found no statistically significant disparities in the application of the death penalty in our state.

True justice is getting what you deserve proportionate to the crime you committed: not too lenient, not too harsh. There are some crimes where the only just penalty is death. We should not relish or enjoy it, it should be rare – only when the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt – and only after the defendant has received his full due process.

Make no mistake, having a death penalty is warranted for those who commit the most heinous of crimes. It is a terrible duty that must be done to protect innocent life and the potential that certain murderers don’t murder again.

Nebraska has no cost savings by enacting LB 268. Nebraska has no claims that the 11 men now on death row are actually innocent of their crimes. Nebraska has no mistaken executions that should be halted by this bill. The bill is the same one that Senator Chambers has been trying to get enacted for 38 years.

Finally, the people of LD 2 and across Nebraska, overwhelmingly support the death penalty and to go against the people there would have to be a compelling reason and there is not.

I am not in favor of eliminating the death penalty in our state.

As always, I really appreciate hearing from you on important matters. Please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff for information on legislative bills or if I may of assistance. Please reach me at: Sen. Bill Kintner, 1000 State Capitol, Lincoln, NE 68509 (402-471-2613), or at my email: bkintner@leg.ne.gov.