The New York Times’ Julie Bosman covered the attempt to reinstate the death penalty in Nebraska via a petition drive. She wrote,
If proponents of the death penalty collect about 58,000 signatures, or 5 percent of Nebraska’s registered voters, by the end of August, under state law they will force a statewide referendum on the death penalty in November 2016. If the organizers collect twice that number, the new law repealing capital punishment will be blocked until the referendum.
But this is an effort spearheaded by a Governor who witnessed the legislature override his veto and overwhelming vote three other times to repeal a broken death penalty system. Bosman noted,
The governor has received criticism from lawmakers for his role in resurrecting the issue of the death penalty after the Legislature debated it extensively, voted three times to abolish it and overrode a veto. Governor Ricketts donated $100,000 to the petition effort, as did his father, Joe Ricketts.
State Senator Colby Coash, who led the repeal campaign within the legislature said,
“It makes me worry,” Mr. Coash said in an interview. “How many times is he going to try to reverse one branch of government’s decision that he couldn’t get reversed through a veto? Is he just going to write another big check and try to get it reversed that way?”
I was also interviewed for this article. While discussing the Governor’s strange attempts to reinstate the death penalty and the petition drive, I told Bosman,
“It’s descended into the bizarre,” said Marc Hyden, a national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a group based in Atlanta. “I don’t know which way it will go. But I know this is a broken government program that goes against everything conservatives believe in.”