Kudos to the Nebraska Republican legislators who overrode their Governor’s own veto and made Nebraska the first conservative state to voluntarily abolish the death penalty via legislative enactment.
Though it formally considers itself nonpartisan, the Nebraska Legislature is dominated by Republicans. Republican legislators who have voted in favor of abolition said they believed the death penalty was inefficient, expensive and out of place with their party’s values. Other lawmakers cited religious or moral reasons for their support of the death penalty ban.
What is notable is that conservative evangelicals and Catholics were the most vocally opposed:
Mr. Johnson, who considers himself an evangelical Protestant, said he sees the issue less as a religious belief than a strictly personal one.
If you really follow Jesus’s teachings,” he said, “thou shall not kill, you know.”
Catholic bishops in Nebraska issued a statement on Tuesday criticizing Mr. Ricketts’s veto. “We remain convinced that the death penalty does not deter crime, nor does it make Nebraska safer or promote the common good in our state,” they said.
Perhaps like same sex marriage bans and pot legalization, this may portend a future wave of conservative and swing states overturning a clearly failed policy.
Christopher says
While it’s probably reasonable to say that Nebraska’s Senators mostly lean Republican in their outlook, the state is unique for officially being non-partisan (and unique in being unicameral). I wonder if this lack of party identification and therefore primaries lends itself to being less ideological than their counterparts in Congress or other states.
Christopher says
…that you did in fact blockquote a point about it being non-partisan which I didn’t notice on first skim, but my other point about the effect thereof stands.
Jasiu says
Watch the Rachel Maddow show from last night. She goes into detail about how this got done – it was indeed a conservative effort.
johntmay says
When I was a subscriber to the National Review, I recall an article (maybe by William F. Buckley) attacking capital punishment on conservative grounds. ?
whoaitsjoe says
at least not over the age of 50.
jconway says
I looked it up and WFB was pro-death penalty his whole life. He did move towards a more moderate position on abortion and legalizing drugs later in his life, so there is that.
Maybe it was Sen. Danforth? He was always a death penalty opponent despite being a (reasonable in my book) Republican.
Christopher says
…I saw an item indicating they overrode the Governor’s veto of drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.