Randy Steidl spent more than a decade on Illinois' death row – for two murders he didn't commit.
He was convicted in 1987 of stabbing a newlywed couple and setting their house on fire but was exonerated in 2004 after a federal judge deemed the investigation faulty.
Steidl testified Thursday before more than 100 spectators at the Nebraska State Capitol in support of Sen. Brenda Council's legislative bill to repeal the death penalty.
"Sooner or later, you're going to be killing an innocent man," Steidl warned, citing Illinois' 18 death row exonerations as proof of a botched system.
Council's LB306 and Sen. Mike Flood's LB36 were debated before the Legislature's judiciary committee during Thursday's 4 1/2-hour public hearing.
Council said it's time to "put Nebraska out of the business of killing human beings."
Last February, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the electric chair, the state's only means of capital punishment, unconstitutional, leaving the state without a way to fulfill death sentences.
Flood's bill would fill that void by using lethal injection, the method of choice for 35 other states.
"Some crimes are so grave, so heinous that the only proportionate punishment is the death penalty," Flood said.
Death penalty opponents blasted Flood's bill, ripping at its provision to allow the lethal substance, procedure and "members of the execution team" to be kept secret.
Former Sen. Ernie Chambers, famous for his sharp tongue and firm stance against capital punishment, took the reins for the opposition in the hearing room bearing his name.
He said of substituting one "inhumane" penalty for another: "Putting lipstick on a pig, to be cliche, does not alter the state of the pig."
Other opponents said the cost is just too much.
Defending and prosecuting death row inmates' appeals can rack up huge tabs for the state, several people testifying said, with some estimates reaching $10 million per inmate.
Michael Radelet, chairman of the University of Colorado's sociology department and author of hundreds of papers about capital punishment, called the bill the "2009 stimulus package for lawyers."
On the other side of the issue, three county attorneys supported the shift to lethal injection, saying the punishment fits in "unique and tremendous circumstances."
If victims' families don't get closure knowing death row inmates are suffering the ultimate consequences, "at least they know the criminal justice process has taken place," said Douglas County attorney Don Kleine.
Madison County Attorney Joe Smith talked at length about the "Norfolk seven," the victims of the 2002 Norfolk killing spree that involved a bank holdup.
"I see the victims' families almost every day," Smith said. "I know what they've been through."
Bill Sun, whose father was murdered during the robbery, spoke in favor of Flood's legislation.
"He's not just one of the Norfolk seven," he said. "He was my father.
"What gets me through every day is the hope this system will work. It is my hope this bill will be advanced."
The three killers now await their fate on death row. They are accompanied by seven others, including John Lotter, whose 1993 murder of a transsexual inspired the movie "Boys Don't Cry," and Michael Ryan, the Rulo, Neb., cult leader.
The two bills will be debated within the judiciary committee before they get a chance to hit the Legislature floor for first-round debates.
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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