Even as repeal supporters exchanged handshakes and hugs in the legislative chamber, a key defender of capital punishment vowed to keep the broader debate alive. Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha announced plans to pursue a petition drive to put reinstatement of the death penalty on the ballot.

In the most suspenseful decision to play out in Nebraska’s one-house Legislature in years, lawmakers voted 30-19 to override Gov. Pete Ricketts’ veto of Legislative Bill 268. Without a vote to spare, the override replaced lethal injection with life in prison.

The override vote commanded national attention as Nebraska became the 19th state to repeal the death penalty and the first with a predominantly Republican legislature to abolish capital punishment since North Dakota in 1973.

The outcome elicited a nod and a grin from the typically stoic Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has tried for four decades to repeal the death penalty. As the controversial senator walked through the glass doors leading into the Capitol Rotunda, he was feted with chants of “Ernie! Ernie! Ernie!”

Chambers quoted from the Bible to summarize his thoughts upon the achievement of his highest political goal.

“I fought the good fight, I finished my course, I kept the faith,” he said. “And although I put it in the personal pronoun singular, it’s everybody who voted for that override. Because if any one of them had not, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Senators in the officially nonpartisan Legislature dealt a defeat to the first-term Republican governor, who made an all-out effort to peel away three of the 18 conservative senators who helped send the bill to his desk. Two senators who supported the bill during floor votes switched positions and sided with the governor Wednesday.

“My words cannot express how appalled I am that we have lost a critical tool to protect law enforcement and Nebraska families,” Ricketts said in a statement after the vote.

Immediately after the vote, McCoy announced the formation of Nebraskans for Justice, a group that will explore a citizen-driven ballot initiative to reinstate the death penalty.

“Once again, Nebraska’s Legislature has gone against the wishes of an overwhelming number of Nebraskans who believe the death penalty should be in place for those who commit the most heinous crimes,” McCoy said.

The measure will take effect in 90 days, which would be late August or early September, depending upon when the Legislature adjourns. The law could be blocked temporarily, however, if opponents gather signatures from 10 percent of registered voters in the next three months. Voters would then decide the fate of capital punishment.

Legal experts say the repeal erases the statutory means to carry out a death sentence in Nebraska, meaning that the 10 men on death row will serve de facto life sentences.

“I can’t even put into words how disappointed I am,” said Christine Tuttle, whose mother, Evonne, was one of five people murdered in a Norfolk bank in 2002. The three men responsible for her mother’s slaying remain on death row.

Tuttle, 31, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, came to the State Capitol on Tuesday to appear with Ricketts as he vetoed the bill. She said she’s prepared to quit her full-time job to work on a referendum to restore capital punishment.

“If we have to go out and get signatures and put this to a vote of the people, that’s what we’re going to do,” she said. “There’s got to be another way.”

Leading up to the override vote, several senators said they had received hundreds, even thousands, of calls and emails calling for either the death penalty’s preservation or its demise. Public feedback took a darker turn when at least two senators reported that they had received threatening messages from death penalty supporters.

The fourth and decisive vote on repeal came a week after lawmakers voted 32-15 to pass LB 268. During three floor debates, many of the conservatives who backed the repeal portrayed the death penalty as an inefficient and wasteful government program that tied up the state in costly appeals.

Nebraska has not carried out an execution since 1997.

During Wednesday’s solemn and emotional 2 ½ hour debate, members of the public nearly filled the balconies, legislative staff members lined the alcoves and lobbyists jockeyed for a better view from outside the chamber.

On the floor, senators sat quietly as Chambers opened the debate with a nod to the conservative lawmakers who helped deliver the measure to the governor.

“This will be the shining moment of the Nebraska Legislature,” he said. “The world, by anybody’s reckoning, is a place filled with darkness, contention, violence. We today can move to lift part of that cloud of darkness that has been hovering over this state for all these years.”

As the debate unfolded, 29 senators described the steps they went through to reach their override decisions. Some cited spiritual and moral reasons, while others said they wrestled to come up with a definition of justice.

Most said it came down to a deeply personal decision of what they felt was right.

“Do you believe in the sanctity of a human soul or not?” asked Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, a repeal supporter. “Which of you can say that a human soul cannot change and thereby never be of any value ultimately to God.”

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, who played a critical role in gathering conservative support for the measure, told his colleagues to ignore the political pressure they faced and consider what’s best for the state.

“This is a vote on character, and now is the time to be strong,” he said forcefully. “Now is the time to be statesmen, not politicians.”

Gretna Sen. John Murante said he received public input overwhelmingly in favor of retaining executions, which prompted him to switch his vote and sustain the governor’s veto. “This has been the hardest issue that I have confronted during my time here in the Unicameral,” Murante said. “I pledged to do my best to vote the way the majority of my constituents want, and it has become obvious to me that the majority support Gov. Ricketts’ veto.”

Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo also flipped on the repeal measure, saying he returned to a longtime position of supporting the death penalty after the governor asked for time to iron out the problems surrounding lethal injection.

Sen. Tyson Larson of O’Neill abstained on the bill during floor debate, so when he stood to address his colleagues, his position on the override was unclear.

“Today, my conscience weighs heavier than it ever has in this body,” Larson said, before saying he reached the difficult decision to side with the governor because he campaigned as a supporter of the death penalty.

As the senators individually announced their votes for or against the override, all eyes turned to Sen. Robert Hilkemann of Omaha. Hilkemann had said this week he was undecided on the veto after earlier voting for repeal.

In the end, he held firm to his support for repeal.

Cheers and applause cascaded down from the balcony as the speaker pounded his gavel and called for order.

Afterward, his voice halting, Hilkemann said he finally decided that it was time to move the state away from what he came to view as a failed policy.

“I really feel the Lord put me down here for a reason and maybe this was the reason,” he said. “I feel I represented my district well today.”

Contact the writer: 402-473-9587, joe.duggan@owh.com

HOW THEY VOTED

Yes: Roy Baker, Kate Bolz, Patty Pansing Brooks, Kathy Campbell, Ernie Chambers, Colby Coash, Tanya Cook, Sue Crawford, Al Davis, Laura Ebke, Tommy Garrett, Mike Gloor, Ken Haar, Galen Hadley, Matt Hansen, Burke Harr, Robert Hilkemann, Sara Howard, Rick Kolowski, Mark Kolterman, Bob Krist, Brett Lindstrom, John McCollister, Heath Mello, Adam Morfeld, Jeremy Nordquist, Paul Schumacher, Les Seiler, Kate Sullivan, Matt Williams

No: Dave Bloomfield, Lydia Brasch, Joni Craighead, Curt Friesen, Mike Groene, Dan Hughes, Jerry Johnson, Bill Kintner, John Kuehn, Tyson Larson, Beau McCoy, John Murante, Merv Riepe, Jim Scheer, Ken Schilz, David Schnoor, Jim Smith, John Stinner, Dan Watermeier