This morning a few Nebraskan lawmakers prevented a vote on the death penalty through filibuster – despite there being an apparent majority who would have voted for repeal.
Some of those repeal supporters in particular made the death penalty’s flaws crystal clear throughout the 11-hour debate.
It is critical that these key leaders know that the nation is watching – and is excited by what they see.
Sign our open letter thanking Nebraska’s champions for repeal.
We didn’t get a vote on repeal this year, but we are closer than ever before.
Lawmakers took a “test vote” yesterday and repeal supporters won – getting 26 votes.
Last time Nebraska voted on the death penalty, only 13 lawmakers voted for repeal. We’ve nearly doubled our support!
Newspapers and experts within Nebraska are saying that these test votes mean if we’d had a vote on the bill, it would probably have passed.
Legislators gave some of the most eloquent speeches we’ve ever heard, many of them sharing why they changed their minds from being against repeal to now supporting it.
Show these champions how much we appreciate their hard work by signing this open letter.
“Today’s filibuster is a desperate, last ditch effort to ignore the writing on the wall and delay the end of this failed public policy,” said Stacy Anderson, EJUSA’s state partner from Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
“But it is just delay, because the death penalty is coming to an end in our state and everyone knows it.”
Our supporters in the Unicameral hit it out of the park, but they need to keep swinging, so that next time we get our vote!
Thank key Senators for hammering home just how broken Nebraska’s death penalty really is.
