Issue Position: Public Safety
Issue Position
The most essential function of government is to keep its citizens safe. That's why it was so disheartening to learn that the rule of law was being ignored and violent offenders were being released early from prison, with tragic results. Pat will work for criminal justice reform that will keep Nebraskans safe from violent offenders while offering non-violent offenders the best opportunity for rehabilitation and an opportunity to become productive members of society.
Statement on the death penalty abolition bill:
I am disappointed that Governor Ricketts's veto did not stand, though I think some improvements can be made that would assuage the concerns of those who are worried about cost and the execution of the innocent. Charging the death penalty should be reserved for the "worst of the worst" cases and in which there's essentially no room for doubt about guilt, a standard beyond the "reasonable doubt" standard needed for a conviction.
Two huge improvements have been made which have mitigated the problems that accounted for a lot of the bad convictions. One is that the science is radically better than it was in the 1970's and 1980's so we don't have to rely on microscopic hair analysis and the like. DNA has basically solved that. The other is the routine videotaping of witness interrogations. False confessions like in the Beatrice 6 case were the result of exhausted and drug addled suspects.
The threat of the death penalty sometimes helps solve crimes and brings about appropriate guilty pleas. Nikko Jenkins said that his decision to plead guilty was motivated in part by the death penalty. In the infamous Green River killings in Washington, the threat of the death penalty caused the killer to plead guilty in 48 cases and allowed the authorities to find the bodies of scores of young women and girls, bringing closure for families that they would not have had.
Charging a case as a capital case should be rare, and with only one execution in 20 years and only 10 men on death row use of the death penalty in Nebraska has been rare.
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