The Nebraska legislature, by a 32–15 vote, approved a bill that would repeal the death penalty in that state on Wednesday. As the Nebraska legislature is unicameral, the bill will now go directly to the state’s Republican Governor Pete Ricketts.
Though Ricketts has indicated that he would veto the bill, claiming that it “puts the safety of the public and Nebraska families at risk,” Ricketts’ veto may not matter. According to the state legislature, a veto override requires only 30 votes, less than the number that supported the repeal legislation.
Update:
On Wednesday, May 27, the state legislature voted 30–19 to overrule Ricketts’s veto. The death penalty has been repealed in Nebraska.
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