Death Penalty News

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected death row inmate Jeffrey Hessler's constitutional challenge to his conviction based on a 2016 ruling by the country's highest court. Hessler asked to be taken off death row because a e-judge panel and not a jury sentenced him to death for raping and killing 15-year-old Heather Guerrero after he abducted her while she delivered newspapers. His motion cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 decision in Hurst v. Florida , which struck down part of that state’s system because jurors didn’t play a great enough role in determining whether defendants were sentenced to die. In Florida, a jury had considered evidence before making a recommendation on whether the death penalty was appropriate, but the decision ultimately fell to a judge. In January 2016, the court found that sentencing scheme violated the Sixth Amendment. Nebraska has a similar method: A jury must determine whether certain aggravating circumstances alleged ...

The ACLU of Nebraska asked the State Supreme Court on Friday to postpone setting an execution date for Carey Dean Moore until four lawsuits are resolved. The request could delay an execution date for months for Moore, who's spent 38 years on death row, far longer than any of the 11 other inmates sentenced to die. The motion contests arguments by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, who has maintained that the legal battle is over and has asked the Supreme Court to expedite the scheduling of Moore's execution. He argued that all "subsequent collateral attacks and other various postponements have been exhausted." Plus, 1 of the state's 4 drugs needed for the execution will expire Aug. 31. Peterson suggested a July 10 date for the state's 1st execution in 21 years, a date that coincides - by accident, according to the attorney general - with the birthday of State Sen. Ernie Chambers, an ardent foe of capital punishment. The ACLU, in its fil...

Convicted Norfolk bank robber Erick Vela this week filed a petition asking a federal judge to stay his execution and vacate his sentence, saying his death sentence is unconstitutional. The 211-page petition filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday argues in part that Vela is intellectually disabled and that executing him would violate his Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Vela's petition for habeas corpus, which was filed by his attorneys, marks his latest appeal following unsuccessful efforts in state court to overturn his death sentence. "Mr. Vela accepted responsibility for his role in the murders when he (pleaded) guilty," the petition said. "Central issues in his case are whether he is ineligible for the death penalty ... because he is intellectually disabled, and whether mitigating circumstances existed so that his life should be spared." Vela, 37, has been incarcerated on Nebraska's death row at the Tecum...

Attorneys for an inmate accused of strangling his cellmate have asked a judge to declare Nebraska's death penalty unconstitutional. Concerns over the recently reinstated capital punishment that was repealed in 2015 are among the 11 arguments in a motion filed Monday by Todd Lancaster and Sarah Newell, attorneys for Patrick Schroeder. The move prompted a delay in Schroeder's arraignment that was set for Tuesday. Instead, District Judge Vicky Johnson scheduled a July 28 hearing on Schroeder's motion. "Our society can no longer kill to show that killing is wrong," the motion stated. Schroeder has been serving a life sentence for murder but now also faces a potential death sentence for allegedly choking cellmate Terry Berry Jr. to death in April at the Tecumseh State Prison. Lancaster said the state's death penalty is racially and geographically discriminatory. He alleged that of the 9 men sent to death row in Nebraska since 2002, only one w...

Patrick Schroeder TECUMSEH, Neb. — A recent change in lethal injection procedure intended to enable Nebraska to carry out executions has been challenged by an inmate facing a potential death sentence. Concerns over the new drug protocol are among the 11 arguments in a motion filed this week by attorneys for Patrick Schroeder, who seeks to have Nebraska’s death penalty law declared unconstitutional. Schroeder, who is already serving a life sentence for murder, now faces the death penalty for allegedly choking to death his cellmate, Terry Berry Jr., on April 15 inside a special management unit cell at the Tecumseh State Prison. He was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Johnson County District Court and enter a plea. Instead, District Judge Vicky Johnson scheduled a July 28 hearing on Schroeder’s motion to overturn the death penalty. “Our society can no longer kill to show that killing is wrong,” stated the motion to quash, filed by defense attorneys Todd Lancas...