Nebraska has become the 19th state in the United States of America to abolish death penalty. And, it is the 7th state in US since 2007 to abolish death penalty. It has a unicameral legislature and its legislature approved abolition of death penalty by a vote of 30-19 to override the veto of the Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts who was reportedly unhappy with this move. Nebraska is supposed to be one of the most conservative states in US. No Republican-controlled state in US had outlawed capital punishment in last 40 years.
It is noteworthy that the US carries out more executions than any other liberal democracy in the world. In 2013 it carried out 39 executions, while in 2014 it carried out 35 executions. It has about 3000 persons on death row. In contrast, in India, after 1997, only 3 executions have been carried out so far – namely, Dhananjoy Chatterjee (14 August 2004), Mohammed Ajmal Kasab (21 November 2012) and Mohammad Afzal Guru (9 February 2013).
In US, death penalty can be awarded in aggravated murders committed by mentally competent adults. Now, with Nebraska deciding against it, it is a legal sentence in only 31 states of US and also in the federal legal system. In addition to the District of Columbia, following 19 states do not currently have an enforceable law to award death penalty since the respective years shown in the bracket:
Michigan (1846), Wisconsin (1853), Maine (1887), Minnesota (1911), Alaska (1957), Hawaii (1957), Vermont (1964; but it has retained death penalty for treason), Iowa (1965), West Virginia (1965), North Dakota (1973), Massachusetts (1984), Rhode Island (1984), New Jersey (2007), New York (2007), New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2011), Connecticut (2012), Maryland (2013), Nebraska (2015).
