Capital Punishment in Nebraska - Method

Method

The sole method of execution in Nebraska is lethal injection.

Historically, hanging was the method Nebraska used up to the execution of Albert Prince. In 1913 after the execution of Albert Prince, a new law was passed requiring electric chair as the method of execution and outlawed hanging. Allison Cole was the first person executed by the electric chair in Nebraska. As of 2007, the electric chair was required as the method of execution. The most notorious electrocution ever carried out in the state of Nebraska is arguably that of murderer Charles Starkweather, whose 1958 killing spree with his teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate cemented his reputation as one of America's most bloodthirsty spree killers to ever be brought to justice.

On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared in State v. Mata that electrocution constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Nebraska Constitution, effectively staying all death sentences in Nebraska. The state legislature approved the bill to change its method of execution to lethal injection; Gov. Dave Heineman signed the bill on May 28, 2009. Nebraska was the last state to adopt lethal injection as execution method.

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