Christian perspectives on Nebraska's death penalty repeal

The death penalty died in Nebraska this week, with support from nearly half the state Senate’s Republicans.

With execution costs growing and lethal injection drugs hard to obtain, states face a choice. Like Utah, which recently revived firing squads, states could seek other execution methods. They could also follow Nebraska and 18 other states in repealing the death penalty altogether.

State Sen. Colby Coash supported Nebraska’s original death penalty repeal. He stands among 16 of 35 Republican senators who voted to override the governor’s veto, and his belief in God saturates his position.

When Coash first campaigned as a conservative Catholic candidate, he assumed “pro-life” just meant anti-abortion. But voters kept asking how his pro-life position applied to capital punishment.

“I ended up coming to the conclusion that being pro-life means you have to follow God’s plan,” Coash said. “God’s plan is that he creates you, you’re supposed to do the best you can on earth, and he decides when you die.”

But to Nebraska Sen. Beau McCoy, a pro-life stance favors the death penalty. A Republican and a Baptist, his pro-life and pro-death penalty positions both stem from a desire to protect innocent life.

“The dead cannot cry out for justice on their own,” he said. “It’s up to the living—up to me—to cry out for justice on their behalf.”

After the repeal, McCoy launched the organization Nebraskans for Justice to pursue a statewide vote on the death penalty. He believes the Founding Fathers built America on Christian principles. His faith leads him to support their design, including capital punishment.

For Coash, a small-government position lends itself to abolishing capital punishment. With the state unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, death row has absorbed money ever since. The last Nebraska execution occurred in 1997.

“We haven’t done it, so why do we keep spending money on trying to do it?” Coash asked.

The monetary argument convinced many conservative senators. But with potential court challenges to move forward on executions, McCoy said the repeal will cost Nebraska more than before: “In our state, removing the death penalty doesn’t save money.”

Other states also have failed to improve their budgets by abolishing capital punishment. “I don’t see any other conservative states moving away from the death penalty any time soon,” McCoy said.

Coash disagrees and sees the trend going the other way: “If it can happen in Nebraska of all places, it can happen in other places.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.