Neb. Court Rejects Electic Chair Appeal

[Judi Lynn]

Neb. Court Rejects Electic Chair Appeal
Nebraska Court Rejects Inmate's Appeal That Electric Chair Is Cruel and Unusual Punishment
By KEVIN O'HANLON

LINCOLN, Neb. Jul 28, 2006 (AP)— The state Supreme Court on Friday rejected an inmate's appeal that the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, leaving Nebraska as still the only state with electrocution as its sole means of execution.

No American court has ever ruled that electrocution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. But as legal challenges were mounted against its use, others states adopted alternative methods of execution, primarily lethal injection.

"Nebraska … now is alone in the United States, actually in the whole world, in still requiring electrocution," Carey Dean Moore's lawyer, Alan Peterson, argued to the court. "Nebraska is the last holdout for this universally rejected and condemned sole means of capital punishment."

In its ruling, the court noted that Moore was previously rejected in his bid to have the electric chair deemed cruel and unusual punishment. The court said it "need not entertain a second or successive motions for similar relief on behalf of the same prisoner."
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2247665

[Meldread]

1. ...damn...

I thought we finally, as a Nation, moved past shocking them to death and moved onto the more humane treatment of gassing or lethal injection. Come on, Nebraska, get with the times!

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. A little blood letting is always good for pacifying the masses.

Makes them feel safe.