All posts by Shane Pekny

Coalition formed to oppose death penalty referendum

News,

From the Lincoln Journal-Star:

People and groups from across the state will come together to formally oppose efforts to stop the repeal of Nebraska’s death penalty, the coalition announced Thursday.

Nebraskans for Public Safety is asking Nebraskans to decline to sign a petition that would allow people to vote in 2016 on whether the state should have a death penalty. Depending on how many signatures are collected, the petition also could stop the repeal from being enacted until the vote.

The coalition includes Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Nebraska Innocence Project, ACLU of Nebraska, faith leaders, conservative leaders and the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, according to a news release.

Other supporting groups and individuals will be announced during the referendum campaign, said Kevin O’Hanlon, spokesman for Nebraskans for Public Safety.

Read the full story.

Bruce Johnson appointed to fill Steve Larrick’s NRD seat

News

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Bruce Johnson, a retired professor from Lincoln, has been appointed to fill a vacancy on the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District Board.

Johnson, who taught in the department of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for 39 years, will represent Subdistrict 5 in west Lincoln. The opening was created when the board vacated the seat held by Steve Larrick, who is teaching in China.

Johnson will serve the balance of the first half of Larrick’s four-year term, through December 2016. The seat will be up for election in the 2016 primary and general elections.

Read related stories from the Journal Star.

Say thanks because it’s a nice thing to do

Action Alerts

In the wake of the Nebraska Unicameral’s historic action in repealing the death penalty over a gubernatorial veto, let’s not forget to say thanks. Among Greens, nonviolence is a core value and repealing the death penalty just makes sense. For many members of the politically diverse Unicameral, this was a more difficult decision. Let them know that it was the right decision! Also, saying thanks is just a nice thing to do and a great way to develop more of a dialogue with your elected representatives.

Find your senator’s contact information and say thanks.

See how your senator voted on the veto override.

VICTORY: Nebraska Becomes the 19th State to Abolish the Death Penalty!

News, ,

From Nebraskans for Peace:

Wow, who would have thought it possible? Red-state Nebraska (with a few purple splotches) actually has repealed the death penalty by voting to override the Governor’s veto! And who were the people responsible for finally pushing this through? A strong coalition of abolitionists, plus some unlikely suspects, that’s who.

First, a little bit of history: Nebraska was the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty in the modern era, in 1979, but the bill failed to survive the governor’s veto. Subsequently, we saw three executions in the 1990’s, the last one being in 1997.

Read more.

Join the Tar Sands Resistance March on June 6: Bus picking up from Lincoln and Omaha

Events,

A charter bus from Nebraska, picking up in Lincoln and Omaha, has been arranged for the Tar Sands Resistance March, Saturday, June 6, 2015, in St. Paul, MN. There are 50 seats available. The cost is only $25/seat.

Stand with thousands of people coming together to say NO at the Tar Sands Resistance March, the largest ever anti-tar sands event in the Midwest. Our public pressure has stopped President Obama from approving Keystone XL — so far. But the Tar Sands industry and Koch brother’s aren’t waiting: They are pursuing a major expansion of a network of pipelines to bring even more toxic tar sands into the Midwest — and the Obama Administration has already approved some of these plans. We need to send a powerful, public message that any tar sands expansion allowed by President Obama and other leaders is a failure of their moral obligation to protect our families.

Tar Sands Resistance March:

  • When: Saturday, June 6th, noon to 4 p.m.
  • Where: March to the State Capitol Lawn, St Paul, MN. Starting at Lambert Landing, Corner of Shepard Road and N. Sibley Street. Ending at the State Capitol Lawn, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
  • Getting there: Charter bus from Nebraska, picking up in Lincoln and Omaha, only $25/seat!

Read more about the event and buy tickets here.

Nebraska’s death penalty is repealed

News,

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Forty years of work, piles of research, conversations and debate finally brought results Wednesday afternoon for the senator from Omaha’s near north side.

“No matter how many other things I have achieved while here, had I not gotten the death penalty repealed I would have felt it was a failure,” Sen. Ernie Chambers told reporters after a historic vote that saw 29 colleagues give just enough support to override a Republican governor’s veto of his bill (LB268) that repealed the state’s death penalty.

Read the full story.

 

Action Alert: Veto override vote today at 1:30 p.m.

Action Alerts, ,

The Nebraska Legislature has passed and the governor has vetoed a bill to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska. The Unicameral has the opportunity to make history by overriding the governor’s veto in a vote scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.

Enough senators have voted to repeal in past rounds to make a successful override likely; however, now is the moment of truth when a vote to repeal will truly mean repeal. This is a BIG deal, and the senators’ votes will follow them for the rest of their political careers. We need to give them confidence that voting to override the veto is the right thing to do — a vote they can be proud of and that Nebraska will be proud of for decades to come.

This morning, urge your senator to help override the governor’s veto and end the death penalty in Nebraska.

If you don’t know your senator, find him or her here.

Unicameral passes death penalty repeal with 32 votes

News,

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Following a solemn debate that flashed fiery at the end, the Legislature on Wednesday passed a landmark bill to abolish the death penalty in Nebraska with sufficient support to override a gubernatorial veto.

The bill (LB268), sponsored by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, was approved on a 32-15 count following a 34-14 vote to end a last-gasp filibuster by opponents.

Thirty votes eventually will be required to override a promised veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Wednesday’s historic vote may have signaled the end of a long journey for Chambers, who has been attempting to eliminate the death penalty for four decades.

“This is it,” he said as he entered the legislative chamber to begin the debate.

In 1979, Chambers won legislative approval of death penalty repeal, but the bill fell victim to a veto by Gov. Charles Thone.

Chambers told his colleagues they were on the cusp of writing history and it was a marked change of position among conservative legislators that made the difference.

“Nebraska will step into history” if the death penalty is eliminated here, he said. “It would be the first so-called conservative state to do so.”

Read the full story.

Read more about Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Death penalty repeal advances with 30 votes

News,

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

A bill that would repeal the death penalty moved Friday to final reading, but a leading opponent said the fight on the bill would continue for another two rounds, if needed.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers called the vote to advance the bill on second round another step on an arduous journey, “but a step of historical significance.”

Such a bill hasn’t passed since 1979, but that was vetoed by then-Gov. Charles Thone. A similar bill by Chambers in 2013 failed to get to a vote, with 28 of the 33 needed to end a filibuster against it.

This time, 30 senators voted to advance the bill to final reading, after breaking the filibuster with 34 votes. If senators stick with their votes, it would be enough to override an expected veto from Gov. Pete Ricketts.

“When something is of truly historical significance, it is not because of one individual or one act,” Chambers said.

Read the full story.

Peg Gallagher devoted her life to nonviolence and social justice

News,

From the Omaha World-Herald:

Most people spent New Year’s Eve 1999 either celebrating or worrying about Y2K — the impact of the new millennium on everyday life.

Never one to follow convention, Margaret Sheehan Fitzgerald Gallagher did something different: With her stepdaughter, she traveled to Nevada and joined a nuclear weapons protest at a testing site. She was 81 at the time.

Friends and relatives expected nothing less. Gallagher, known as Peg, had a passion for social justice issues such as racism, the death penalty and wars she considered to be unjust.

“War and violence — she was just completely and utterly against it,” said granddaughter Joan Manriquez of New York City. “She spent a lot of time and energy protesting that.”

Read the full story.

Read Peg’s obituary.