Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — A proposal to use nitrogen gas to carry out executions in Nebraska brought out a parade of opponents to capital punishment on Wednesday.
Opponents, ranging from the ACLU of Nebraska to the Nebraska Nurses Association, called using suffocation via nitrogen gas “untested, dangerous and explicitly inhumane” during a public hearing before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
They pointed out that even the American Veterinary Medicine Association has ruled out nitrogen hypoxia in euthanizing pets because “animals may experience distressing side effects before loss of consciousness.”
Almost every opponent said that adopting a different method of execution — one billed as “painless” — wouldn’t change their opposition to capital punishment.
“Nebraska’s history with the death penalty has been a saga long on politics, public debate, concurrent litigation, and short on results,” said Spike Eickholt, who lobbies for two anti-death penalty groups.
“There is no reason to perpetuate this saga by altering the method of execution,” he added.
Lethal injection drugs held back
State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City introduced the nitrogen hypoxia measure, Legislative Bill 970.
Lippincott said that capital punishment is the law in Nebraska but that because of the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to provide the drugs used in lethal injections, another method must be found.
Obtaining nitrogen gas would not be a problem, Lippincott said.
In January, Alabama used nitrogen gas for the first time in the nation to execute a convicted murderer.
Another alternative: legislative firing squad
An amendment filed by Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt to Lippincott’s bill would allow the use of a “legislative firing squad” as another means of execution.
Hunt, a death-penalty opponent, has tweeted that if the state must have capital punishment, using a firing squad of all 49 state senators would allow lawmakers “to bear responsibility for state-sponsored murder.”
Oklahoma, Mississippi and Missouri also allow nitrogen hypoxia, Lippincott said, and the states of Ohio and Louisiana are considering bills to allow it.
He compared it to “putting to sleep” a sickly pet via euthanasia.
‘As painless and humane as possible’
“My primary desire is to make it as painless and humane as possible,” Lippincott said.
He read a letter of support for the procedure from the Alabama attorney general, who said it would eliminate the “guerrilla warfare” facing the various other forms of executions.
But two senators on the Judiciary Committee, Terrell McKinney of Omaha and Carol Blood of Bellevue, disputed that nitrogen hypoxia was painless.
Blood said eyewitnesses to the Alabama execution reported that the condemned inmate “gasped for air” and that his body shook and his fist clenched in the 22 minutes before he was declared dead.
McKinney, who has introduced bills to repeal the death penalty, questioned why nitrogen hypoxia should be used in executions if it had been ruled out for euthanizing pets.
Lippincott responded that it’s probably harder to fit a mask on the face of a dog or cat to administer the gas.
Study suggested first
McKinney said very little research had been done on this form of execution and asked Lippincott why he didn’t consider seeking a study of nitrogen hypoxia first.
That, the Central City senator said, would be something for the Judiciary Committee to decide.
No one testified in person in favor of LB 970. Nebraska last carried out an execution in 2018, when double-murderer Carey Dean Moore was put to death via lethal injection — the state’s first execution in 21 years.
Since then, state officials have said Nebraska lacks the drugs needed to impose capital punishment. Eleven men currently sit on death row in the state.
State lawmakers repealed the death penalty in 2015, but Nebraska voters restored capital punishment in 2016 by approving a referendum backed by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts and his family.
Among those testifying against LB 970 on Wednesday were the Nebraska Catholic Conference, Nebraskans for Peace, the League of Women Voters of Nebraska and Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Sixty-six letters of opposition to the bill were submitted, compared to two letters in favor.
The Judiciary Committee took no action on LB 970 after the public hearing. Because the bill has no priority designation from a senator or a committee, it’s doubtful it will come up for debate this year.