Sputnik’s Thomas Zimmer recently interviewed me for an article describing Governor Ricketts’ attempts to reinstate Nebraska’s broken death penalty system. While it appears that enough signatures were gathered to place the death penalty on the 2016 ballot, there are still many hurdles ahead for Ricketts and company. Zimmer wrote,
The proposal to postpone the repeal of death penalty in Nebraska is irrational because the state’s capital punishment program is flawed with wrongful convictions and high costs, US advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Advocacy Coordinator Marc Hyden told Sputnik.
“No matter how much money Governor Ricketts and his family spend on this referendum, it does not change the basic fact that they are trying to sell Nebraskans a lemon – a government program plagued by wrongful convictions, high costs, and long delays,” Hyden said.
Hyden added that “the broken nature” of the capital punishment in Nebraska has been “on full display with the ongoing fiasco surrounding the Governor’s attempts to illegally import lethal injection drugs from overseas.”The coordinator said that over the next year rights groups will be educating Nebraskans about the “unavoidable problems” that come with the state’s death panalty.
“At the end of the day, Nebraskans will have the opportunity to voice their disgust over the flawed death penalty system – just like the super-majority of Nebraska lawmakers who voted for its repeal,” Hyden said.