Hunt suggests ‘legislative firing squad’ after Nebraska senator proposes execution by gas

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A proposal to add another execution method in Nebraska has caught the ire of death penalty opponents.

State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City proposed that Nebraska use nitrogen hypoxia as a method for executions.

Nitrogen hypoxia — an authorized execution method in Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi — has not yet been used.

The first execution using the gas is set for Jan. 25 in Alabama, according to the Associated Press.

In response to Lippincott’s bill, State Sen. Megan Hunt — a death penalty opponent — proposed an amendment on Friday.

“A sentence of death shall be enforced by either lethal injection or legislative firing squad,” the amendment says.

The change would offer lawmakers an “opportunity to bear responsibility for state-sponsored murder,” Hunt wrote in a post to X.

In 2015, lawmakers abolished the death penalty.  But a successful petition drive led to the death penalty’s reinstatement.

Carey Dean Moore, who was convicted of killing two cab drivers in 1979, was executed in 2018.

Nebraska hasn’t executed any death row inmates since because it can’t get the drugs needed for lethal injection.