Neb. Only State With Electric Chair

April 26, 2002

LINCOLN, Neb.- Come July 1, Nebraska will be the only state with the electric chair as its sole means of execution, a development that critics argue makes the chair a cruel and unusual punishment.

Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman signed a law Thursday making lethal injection the primary method of execution in Alabama. Condemned inmates in Alabama will die by injection beginning in July unless they choose the electric chair.

Sen. Kermit Brashear, chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Jon Bruning have each introduced measures changing Nebraska's method of execution to lethal injection the past two sessions.

 The bills have died in committee.

``Our methodology may now be more unusual than it was when Alabama was also doing it,'' said Brashear. ``It's simply another step in the evolution that has left Nebraska as the only state using the electric chair.''

 Brashear said neither bill was advanced this year because there was not time for adequate debate. Brashear said he will reintroduce the measure next year.

 ``It's an issue that needs to be addressed,'' he said.

Siegelman said his state's change was a precaution in case the Supreme Court rules that the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, which could otherwise have thrown

the state's death penalty law into limbo.

 Alabama prosecutors backed the change to make sure capital punishment remains legal in the state.

 The Supreme Court earlier this month blocked the execution of Alabama death-row inmate Gary Leon Brown, convicted of stabbing a man to death in 1987. His appeal contended, in part, that the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment.

 Only one execution was scheduled before Alabama's change. 

Lynda Lyon Block, who was convicted in the 1993 killing of a police officer, is scheduled to die May 10 and is not appealing her sentence. 

Nebraska has no executions scheduled.