Right: Sen. Roger Wehrbein
of Plattsmouth reads a news
pa perduring the last day of
the Nebraska Legislature’s
92nd session.
Below: Sen. David Landis of
Lincoln makes a call Tuesday
from a phone booth in the
legislative chambers.
Photos by
Michelle Paulman
Roundup
Continued from Page 1
violating the NCAA limitation rules.
Another scholarship-based bill,
sponsored by Sen. Merton Dierks of
Ewing, would give athletes new schol
arsh ip protection. The bill died aquict
death when it was not passed out of
Judiciary Committee hearings.
LB 1185 would have granted stu
dent-athletes who have had their
scholarships terminated the right to
have legal counsel represent them at
appeal hearings.
The bill also would have required
that student-athletes facing the termi
nation of their scholarships be noti
fied in writing by April 1 of the pre
ceding academic year and be heard in
front of an impartial board.
The board is composed of thcUNL
vice chancellor for student affairs,
director of scholarships and financial
aid, president of the Academic Sen
ate, the school’s B ig Eight and NCAA
representative and the athletic direc
tor.
Dierks said he was motivated to
propose the bill by a desire for greater
equity for students, not by a specific
incident involving the athletic de
partment.
Death penalty
When senators were not discuss
ing taxes, the death penalty and abor
tion were hot issues.
Sen. Emie Chambers of Omaha,
along with 19 other senators, spon
sored LB327, a bill that would elimi
nate the death penalty.
Chambers said the bill would re
place the death penalty with a life
sentence without parole, although the
Nebraska Pardon Board still would
have the authority to mitigate any
sentence.
Chambers said he initiated the bill
because he was “against the state killing
anyone for any reason.”
The death penalty in Nebraska, he
said, needs to be replaced because it
is administered in an arbitrary, ran
dom and unfair manner.
Chambers argued that the law was
useless because no one had been
executed in Nebraska since Charles
Starkweather in 1959.
First-round approval was not ob
tained on LB327 because when it
came up for a vote Feb. 4, Chambers
asked that the bill be passed over
because many of the bill’s co-spon
sors were absent.
Although senators unanimously
consented to pass over the bill and
return it to the floor at an undeter
mined date, the bill failed to come up
before the Legislature again.
Sen. Carol McBride Pirsch of
Omaha said Chambers’ bill was flawed
because the Pardon Board could re
duce the number of years served and
reduce the severity of a sentence.
Pirsch said the only way to solve
the issue was to repeal the death penalty
and replace it with a life sentence
through a constitutional amendment.
That is what her resolution,
LR213CA, would have done. If the
Legislature had repealed the death
penalty, passage of the resolution would
have passed the issue on to the people
for ratification.
But LR213CA never passed out of
the Judiciary Committee.
A third death penally bill, LB874,
was proposed by Sen. Elroy Hefner of
Coleridge. The bill would keep the
death penally but change the means
of execution to lethal injection.
‘‘I believe some Nebraskans say
that the electric chair is cruel and
inhumane,” Hefner had said. “I don’t
believe that. But to keep the death
penalty, I’m willing to change the
mode.”
During a hearing on LB874 Feb.
20, Hefner said that out of 36 to 38
states that have capital punishment,
20 use lethal injection.
During the hearing, proponents
touted lethal injection as more hu
mane, but opponents argued that
because it was less gory, death by
lethal injection could be handed down
more often.
LB874 also died quietly — it was
never passed out of Judiciary Com
mittee.
Abortion
Like the death penalty bill, the
antiabortion priority bill of the 1992
session sponsored by Sens. John Lind
say of Omaha, Bernice Labedz of
Omaha, Dierks and LaVon Crosby of
Lincoln, also was not voted on before
the 1992 session ended.
After nearly eight hours of debate
April 2, senators adjourned without
taking action on LB78, which would
have required women seeking abor
tions to receive detailed information
about the fetus’ development and then
wait one day before having the proce
dure performed.
The bill did not make it to the floor
again before the session ended.
During debate, senators argued that
anliabortion protestors and abortion
rights advocates alike wanted a legis
lative act to point to in rallying their
forces for the 1992 election season.
“We arc being used as an election
tool today,’’said Sen. David Bemard
Stevens of North Platte at the time.
The bill, which had stalled in the
Judiciary Committee until the end of
March, represented the swan song for
Labedz, a 16-year veteran legislator
and abortion opponent, who will re
tire this year.
Living will
Nebraska senators passed two bills
Feb. 10 that recognized Nebraskans’
rights to direct their own medical
treatment.
LB671, the living-will bill spon
sored by Sen. David Landis of Lin
coln, passed by a vote of 34-9.
The bill recognizes living wills in
directing medical treatment if a per
son becomes terminally ill or reaches
a persistently vegetative state.
A living will gives the attending
physician specific instructions on what
medical treatment will be allowed or
acceptable.
But slate senators voted to axe the
most controversial section of the bill
before it was passed. Senators ap
proved an amendment, proposed by
Lindsay, which eliminated a section
of the bill that provided for Nebras
kans who were terminally ill and did
not have living wills. In that case, the
physician may be faced with having
to decide on the patient’s treatment.
According to the original bill, the
doctor would follow a chain of com
mand — the spouse, then children
and parents— to make the decision to
end a patient’s life or let her or him
live on life support.
Lindsay said the section surpassed
what a living-will bill was supposed
to mean.
LB696, sponsored by Lindsay, also
passed by a vote of 46-0. The bill
gave legal recognition to directing
medical treatment through a durable
power of attorney if a patient was in
an incapacitated state.
A durable power of attorney, in
stead of instructing the physician like
a living will, gives a third person the
power to make the decisions of the
direction treatment should take.
Stalking
Another bill senators passed this
session was LB 1098.
The bill passed by a vote of 44-10
Tuesday, despite some senators’
concerns that the bill would not ac
complish its intended goal.
Tnc bill, sponsored by Sens. Jen
nie Robak of Columbus, Pirseh and
DiAnna Schimck of Lincoln, makes
the act of stalking a criminal offense.
But Chambers and Bcutler were
concerned that the conditions defin
ing stalking would make the crime
difficult to prosecute. They said
Nebraskans already had simpler pro
visions to prosecute some forms of
stalking as third-degree assault.
Robak said the third-degree as
sault provisions had been in place for
15 years and had not improved stalk
ing prosecution. If further improve
ments needed to be made on the bill,
she said, it could be picked up in next
year’s session.
“This bill is not only needed for
the protection of victims, it is an
answer for the prayers of policemen
who have been finable to help their
victims,” Robak said.
The passage of the bill made
Nebraska one of only three states
with laws defining and providing
penalties for stalking.
If the governor signs the bill into
law within five days, LB 1098 would
make stalking a Class I misdemeanor
for the first offense and a Class IV
felony for the second offense, includ
ing a penalty of up to five years in jail
and a $10,000 fine.
Multiculturalism
Another bill that reached a final
vote was LB922. The bill, which would
require Nebraska schools to develop
and implement multicultural educa
tion into existing school programs,
was reconsidered April 7.
The bill did not receive enough
voles to pass the first time because
many of the bill’s proponents were
not present. Chambers said.
Chambers was the bill’s main
sponsor.
On reconsideration, LB922 passed
by a vole of 29-10.
Chambers said LB922 was not
designed to add new classes or teach
ers to the schools, but instead would
require schools to integrate multicul
tural education into existing programs
The bill also would require school
districts to prove to the Mate ucpari
ment of Education that they were
complying with the plan.
Several senators agreed that the
Legislature should send the message
to Nebraska schools that it expected
them to deal with multicultural is
sues.
Chambers said senators represented
the public, and the passage of the bdl
showed that “we want to eradicate
racism, bigotry ... and all the things
that build up the walls between us.
Civil rights
A bill calling for equal treatment
according to sexual orientation — the
first of its kind in Nebraska — was
stalled in committee this session.
Because LB 1270 stalled in the
second session, senators will have to
reintroduce the bill next year for it to
be considered.
Sen. Timothy Hall of Omaha in
troduced the bill, which calls for the
adoption of the NcbraskaCivil Rights
Act of 1992.
The act would expand existing state
law and enhance the protection of
Nebraskans against any discrimina
tion that infringes on a person’s due
process of equal opportunity rights.
The act provides protection against
discrimination based on age, disabil
ity. family status, gender, marital status,
national origin, race, religion and, lor
the first lime, sexual orientation.