JUSTICE FOR VIVIAN TUTTLE - VOTE REPEAL TO SAVE THE DEATH PENALTY IN NEBRASKA

            Let us not forget Evonne Tuttle who was murdered with with 4 people in the Norfolk on September 26, 2002. Let us support the family members by remembering the victim (and the other 4 of course) by voting repeal (DO NOT vote Retain) to save the death penalty.

            Let us hear from the victim’s family members:

 

Survivors include three daughters, Christine, 18, a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Virginia, 5, and Sarah, 3, both at home; her mother of Ewing; her birth father, Stanley Bartos of Stevensville, Mont.; and two sisters, Rozan Smith of Creighton and Angela Charf of Omaha. She was preceded in death by her father and grandparents.

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.angelfire.com/ne2/norfolk/nebraska_victims_and_their_families_will_be_remembered.html]

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/heartfelt-pleas-for-and-against-nebraska-death-penalty-at-hearing/article_33277278-f737-5813-9e53-20e8b150f444.html

Heartfelt pleas for and against Nebraska death penalty at hearing

• By Andrew J. Nelson / World-Herald staff writer
• Updated Oct 21, 2016

The day the Nebraska Legislature ended the death penalty in Nebraska was a painful one for Vivian Tuttle.

Tuttle’s daughter, Evonne, was one of five people killed in a bank robbery in Norfolk on Sept. 26, 2002, and Tuttle said at a death penalty hearing Tuesday in Omaha that only an execution could bring the killers to account.

She disagreed with opponents who said the process is too costly.

“You talk about the money, let me tell you, my daughter’s blood that was spilled on that bank floor was worth more than the any of the money that it took to do any of (that).”

The hearing was on Referendum 426, which, if approved by voters Nov. 8, would restore the death penalty in Nebraska. It was moderated by Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale and was one of three to occur in the state.

A number of death penalty opponents also spoke. Matt Maly of Omaha, coordinator for Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, criticized capital punishment as bad public policy.

“Do you really think that law enforcement is lacking a critical tool in Minnesota, which consistently has one of the lowest murder rates in the entire country and hasn’t had the death penalty since 1911?” he said.

The referendum seeks to repeal Legislative Bill 268, which did away with capital punishment in Nebraska, replacing it with life in prison without parole for first-degree murder. .

A careful reading of the ballot language will be needed. It will ask voters to choose to “retain” or “repeal” the law.

A vote to “retain” would get rid of Nebraska’s death penalty. A vote to “repeal” would reinstate it.

Tuesday’s hearing was at the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. About 60 attended.

Death penalty opponents attacked capital punishment as immoral and expensive.

“When a life is on the line, one mistake is too many,” said Marilyn Felion of Omaha.

Many anti-death-penalty speakers invoked the case of the Beatrice Six, in which the threat of execution influenced the plaintiffs to plead guilty or no contest to a brutal slaying that they did not commit.

Those for the death penalty said the stiffest of punishments is needed for the most heinous of crimes. Death, they said, is an effective deterrent, while a life sentence raises the possibility that killers could still get released.

The other hearings are:

» Oct. 13, 6:30 p.m., University of Nebraska at Kearney, Student Union, 1013 W. 27th St.

» Oct. 18, 6:30 p.m., Nebraska State Capitol, Room 1525, Lincoln

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/tuttle-execution-will-be-justice-for-mom-s-murder/article_6c896e66-89f1-57a2-beef-f7e20b5f20cf.html?mode=jqm

Tuttle: Execution will be justice for mom's murder

Testimony for and against Nebraska's death penalty heard at public hearing at UNK

By ERIKA PRITCHARD

Hub Regional Editor | Updated 1 week ago

  

Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt: Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt testified in favor of the death penalty Thursday night at a death penalty public hearing at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. During his testimony, he held up two pictures of state senators celebrating on the floor after passing LB268, which abolishes the death penalty. Eberhardt was at the capital that day with Vivian Tuttle, mother of Evonne Tuttle who was murdered at U.S. Bank in Norfolk in 2002. You cant imagine what Vivian went through to see that, Eberhardt said. - Erika Pritchard, Kearney Hub

KEARNEY — Evonne Tuttle was 37 years young when she was shot and killed in a robbery at U.S. Bank in 2002 in Norfolk, said her daughter Christine Tuttle.

Evonne was one of five people murdered that day.

“My mom is standing at the teller counter cashing a paycheck, a paycheck from a part time job that she quit so she could spend time with her family. As she is standing there smiling, laughing and talking with Samuel (Sun), you see three armed men in masks carrying guns walking into the bank and you just wanna yell, but they can’t hear you, that they’re coming,” Christine Tuttle said of the surveillance video. “But before the robbery even starts, it’s done, and all five people are dead.”

Christine Tuttle, now a South Dakota resident, testified at a public hearing about the death penalty Thursday night at the University of Nebraska at Kearney to voice her support to repeal LB268, which was passed in 2015 by the Nebraska Legislature to abolish the state’s death sentence.

Three men who robbed and murdered at the bank that day — Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo, Erick Vela — are on death row, and Christine Tuttle told the crowd of about 25 people at the hearing that she would like to see it stay that way.

“These men on death row have nothing to lose,” she said of all the men in Nebraska on death row. “I believe if they had the opportunity to kill again, they would. The only way this can never happen is for them to be executed.”

Christine Tuttle added that she doesn’t believe justice will be served until the men on death row are executed.

The 1½-hour hearing’s host was Secretary of State John Gale. Testimony was heard from nine people on both sides of the issue.

Gale explained that on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, Nebraskans will choose to repeal or retain LB268. He said a vote to retain LB268 will abolish the death penalty, and a vote to repeal will allow the death penalty to continue in Nebraska.

Explaining why he voted for LB268 and testifying to retain the bill was Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley of Kearney. Hadley said he weighed 12 questions in making his decision, which led him to decide it was time to eliminate capital punishment in Nebraska.

- Is there a better alternative, such as life without a chance of parole?

- Might we execute an innocent person?

- How much does a person’s race play in the decision of capital punishment?

- Is the death penalty system too costly?

- Does capital punishment deter crime?

- Does the death penalty help the victim’s family reach closure on the issue?

- Is the death penalty applied consistently?

- What are the religious views of capital punishment and are they important to the decision?

- Are mentally ill people executed?

- If we keep the death penalty, are we in line with countries around the world that we do not wish to be in line with?

- Can one be pro-life on the question of abortion and pro-death on the question of capital punishment?

- Can we make capital punishment even happen in Nebraska?

“I voted on the floor on over a 1,000 bills in my eight years in the legislature, and by far away this was the most difficult vote,” said Hadley.

Hadley explained a few answers to the questions he asked himself.

“Here in Nebraska we have life imprisonment. The attorney general of our state has said when someone is sentenced to life they are not eligible for parole. We can be confident that the worst offenders, we can keep them separate from society forever with life imprisonment,” Hadley said.

Matt Maly, Coordinator of Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, also believes in abolishing the death penalty. He said Minnesota has one of the lowest murder rates in the country and hasn’t had the death penalty since 1911.

“If life without parole works for Bismarck, it can work for Lincoln. If it works for Des Moines, it can work for Kearney. If it works for Minneapolis, it can work for Omaha,” he said.

Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenberg said a life sentence is no deterrent to prevent inmates from assaulting or murdering a corrections officer. He urged voters to repeal LB268 to prevent heinous murders.

“There’s no such thing as life without parole because a judge can always commute a sentence,” Stenberg said.

He said there has been an issue brought up of potential innocence of someone on death row.

“In the modern Nebraska era, there is not any evidence that an innocent person has been executed,” he added.

Hadley said that the legislators examined cost studies from other states regarding the death penalty.

“Dr. Ernie Goss from Creighton University showed our death penalty costs us $14.6 million above the cost of life imprisonment,” Hadley said.

Maly said the death penalty is costly to taxpayers.

“Every dollar that we waste on the death penalty is a dollar that doesn’t go towards crime prevention programs and more police officers on the streets to keep our communities safe.”

Stenberg argued the death penalty poses no or minimal fiscal burden in Nebraska by citing the Commission on Public Advocacy, the Department of Correctional Services, the Board of Parole and the state Attorney General.

Hadley said one prisoner has been on Nebraska’s death row for 35 years and this is cruel to the victim’s family.

“Mimi Kelle’s brother was murdered, and she testified repeatedly that the death penalty process — with the high-profile appeals, and decades of waiting — was a terrible punishment for her family,” he said.

Christine Tuttle believes in another kind of closure. She said her mother’s killer, Sandoval, wrote her a letter from prison that if she doesn’t forgive him, she will go to hell. He also told her if she wants answers she can visit him in prison.

“How would that make you feel? He is still victimizing me and my family even from death row,” Christine Tuttle said. “I want to know that I will never receive another letter from him, and I also want to know that these men on death row will never hurt another person.”

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.omaha.com/opinion/editorial-vote-repeal-to-save-nebraska-s-death-penalty/article_d566b716-36c8-5a7b-ab82-a2a7e6ea53f7.html

Editorial: Vote repeal to save Nebraska's death penalty

Updated 4 hrs ago 

  

Nebraskans are not a bloodthirsty people.

Many who have supported the death penalty for decades feel reservations about the potential, however small, for a mistake.

And there is a salient argument from death penalty opponents that Nebraska hasn’t carried out an execution for nearly 19 years.

It’s important to consider the findings of Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss that death penalty states pay more for criminal justice, though the difference is debatable.

A handful of public policies, however, are so fundamental to society as communal expressions of the limits of acceptable behavior that they cannot be argued away. The death penalty — and its underlying principle, that of a public stand against the most depraved killers — is one such policy. It is a statement of the outermost boundary of an ordered society. It draws a needed line: Those who do worse than kill, those who kill wickedly, risk losing their own lives.

In practical terms, the death penalty provides the clearest deterrent effect on criminals already serving life sentences. Prisoners must face consequences if they act out against guards or fellow inmates. Otherwise, little leverage remains to keep the worst criminals from killing with impunity.

And don’t be fooled. Lawyers who argue the cruelty of the death penalty today would turn soon against the penalty of life in prison without parole if the death penalty were no longer an option. So there’s a question of how long life would mean life.

Despite its flaws, the death penalty should remain an option for the worst capital crimes. Some people are so dangerous that society can never set them free. And some acts of violence are so heinous that the perpetrator forfeits the right to a long life behind bars.

Consider Gottlieb Neigenfind, the first man the State of Nebraska put to death, in 1903, after the state took over hangings from county sheriffs.

Newspapers described him as a “degenerate drunk” with a volatile temper. His wife, widow Anna Peters, was a mother of four. Their marriage lasted five months. On Sept. 11, 1902, he visited her family’s farm near Pierce, demanding to see his new son. Told to leave, he later returned with a revolver. He gunned down Anna’s father, then shot Anna’s mother, who survived. 

He fatally shot Anna, then hiked up her skirt and shot her again. Anna’s sister tore free from his grip and got away. The killer later fired on deputies.

Before he was hanged, Neigenfind said he had dreamed about the murders before he committed them and said, “My dreams always come true.”

Each of the 22 men executed since then by the State of Nebraska earned his fate by destroying innocent lives in equally horrifying ways, from torture to rape to killing for sport.

These are the state’s worst killers.

Starkweather.

Otey.

And who could forget John Joubert, the Offutt airman who in 1983 kidnapped, tortured and murdered Danny Joe Eberle, 13, and Christopher Walden, 12, in Sarpy County? He later admitted killing 11-year-old Richard Stetson in Maine.

His prison drawings illustrated torturing the boys. An expert testified Joubert would kill again if ever released. Joubert was electrocuted in 1996.

For killers like these, capital punishment should remain a viable answer. To be sure, it should be used sparingly, with reasonable court appeals to guard against errors.

Public opinion polling shows most Nebraskans agree. Petition circulators last year submitted 143,478 valid signatures — enough not only to ensure a public vote, but also to postpone repeal until after the general election.

State senators voting to eliminate Nebraska’s death penalty deserve credit and respect. Their debate afforded this issue the seriousness it deserves. Decent people can disagree on significant issues. The question of whether to continue to allow state government to deprive a citizen of life is a personal, moral issue, guided often by faith.

While many Nebraskans are uneasy with Gov. Pete Ricketts’ involvement in the petition process, it is voters who will ultimately decide this issue.

If the death penalty is restored, Ricketts, corrections officials and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson need to revise the state’s drug cocktail. Options exist, from inquiring about the federal government’s planned drug cocktail for Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to exploring other states’ methods. Nebraskans aren’t out for blood. But if the state does have a death penalty, it must be able to carry out the sentence.

Nebraskans should vote REPEAL on Nov. 8 to restore Nebraska’s death penalty.