Unwarranted
death sentences
unintentional murderers
should not face execution
Under current Nebraska state law, cold-blooded killers are
sentenced to death. Those killers set out to murder someone,
planning the act and carrying it out.
But Nebraska also sentences^unintentional killers to death.
They are the burglars who scared someone into a heart attack in
the middle of the night. They are the arsonists who did not think
anyone was home. They are also the robbers who panicked
// when things went wrong.
•* 1YI fflOSt Nebraska’s felony murder law per
j mits these criminals to be sentenced to
Jirst-aegree death without having to prove the
, intent to kill. Felony murders are homi
muraer COSCS tides committed in the course of anoth
j . er serious crime, such as sexual assault,
Where intent robbery, arson and kidnapping.
7 7 Prosecutors must prove the crimi
nOS ueen nal intended to commit the underlying
.7 crime but not the homicide.
proven, me a proposed legislative bill would
nivnurvi make felony murder punishable by life
CirCUm- in prison without parole, instead of
Stnnrp* rln execution.
oiuriLstZiy The bill also expands the current
vint wnvrnvit felony murder law to include three
nut wur ruru additional felony murder crimes.
ttlP /fpnth The bill’s proponents argue that it
1 1 should never be possible to put some
venaltv one t0 ^eat^ without proving their
* ' intent to kill.
We agree.
To prove first-degree murder, prosecutors must demonstrate
that the criminals planned their crimes with the highest level of
intent.
But even at that level, not all people convicted of first
degree murder are sentenced to death.
In most first-degree murder cases where intent has been
proven, the circumstances do not warrant the death penalty.
Why then, should we put people to death when we do not
know their intentions?
In first-degree murder cases, a jury may decide to convict on
a lesser offense, such as second-degree murder. The felony mur
der law does not give juries that option.
The proposed change would help ensure that the death
penalty is administered as fairly as possible.
However, we do not, in any way, condone felony murder.
The actions of these criminals must still be punished, and life in
prison without parole is appropriate.
Regardless of your stance on the death penalty, you should
support this bill.
Editorial Board
Josh Funk (editor) • J.J. Harder • Cliff Hicks • Samuel
McKewon • Dane Stickney • Kimberly Sweet • Lindsay
Young
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor
and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication.
The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any
submissions.Submitted material becomes property of the
Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous mate
rial will not be published. Those who submit letters must
identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or
group affiliation, if any.
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union,
1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448 or e-mail to: let
ters@unl.edu
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the spring 2000
Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views
of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its
student body or the University of Nebraska Board of
Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. The
Board of Regents acts as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan;
policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, super
vises the publication of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the
newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees.
The Daily Nebraskan strives to print fair and accurate cover
age; any corrections or clarifications will be printed on page
three.
Obermeyer’s
VIEW
...fiNP So it is WITH
veeP Regket that
-t 5fly to you that
T WILL NO LONGER
be serving- ion.
IN WASHINGTON'
UH...SENATOR
KERRsy? -mis
ISNT NEBRASKA..
Ignorance is not bliss
Public school system has failed Americans
In a campaign speech over the
weekend, Vice President A1 Gore pro
claimed that Democratic leadership in
the 21 st century would affect “revolu
tionary improvement” upon America’s
public education system. Great! We
need it.
Although college attendance is at
an all-time high of 62%, standardized
test scores have dropped about 5.5%
over the last 30 years.
.. Public education is failing the
American public.
Now that we have 30 years more
experience on how to run a public edu
cation system, shouldn’t we be doing
better than our parents—not worse?
Offer teachers more money?
One rationale claims we should pay
teachers more money. This would
attract more skillful people who would
teach our children more. We hear a lot
about this strategy around budget time.
I have only two problems with this.
First, it would never happen. And sec
ond, it would never happen. I don’t
know if anyone has noticed, but we live
in a capitalist society. A fundamental
tenet of capitalism is that in order to
gain financial rewards, one must create
value for the economy.
You may be thinking teachers help
the economy by educating people, but
they don’t, they assist others in gaining
skills that will someday benefit the
economy. Teaching is a support posi
tion. Just like a human resources divi
sion of a corporation. Do human
resource people make as much money
as those actually providing the product
for the corporation? Again, no. It’s a
support position. The career ladder is
shorter, and teachers will never make
substantially more money. Sorry.
Get the family involved.
Recent studies show that children
spend more time watching television
than they spend at school and doing
schoolwork combined. This scares me.
The main problem here is that parents
are not involved enough in their chil
dren’s education.
It’s not that parents don’t want their
children to do well in school. Research
- also shows that parents of all incomes
and education levels list education as a
top priority in their household.
Unfortunately, with the dual-earner
household becoming the norm, parents
just don’t know what’s happening with
their children’s formal education.
As always, I have a solution.
Governor Johanns should champi
on a new statewide policy, which I call
“uniform preparation.” Every day,
every teacher of every subject at every
school in Nebraska would assign
homework. It wouldn’t be a disserta
tion or 500 algebra problems. Each
teacher could assign his or her students
a paragraph to write about a topic that
would be discussed the next day or a
similar minor assignment
As soon as word got around to the
parents in our state about this program,
the kids would lose the excuse that they
didn’t have homework. Parents would
know their child had homework and
that their child had homework in each
subject.
Uniform preparation would create
a nightly obligation for parents. This
plan would get the family unit more
involved in education.
New curriculum, please.
Thomas Jefferson thought schools
in a republic should teach people to
“read and understand what is going on
in the world” Again, American public
schools get an F.
Upon graduation from high school,
many people cannot define any
American political ideology. This is
unacceptable. Should we be surprised
that people don’t vote in this country?
Of course not If you can’t evaluate the
candidates properly, you should stay
home.
When many people graduate, they
can’t define their own system of ethics.
Should we be surprised that children go
on shooting rampages if some of them
can’t even define the term ethics?
Ethics have to be taught somewhere. If
people aren’t going to go to church,
ethics should be taught in the public
schools.
I know our schools are not single
handedly responsible for the problems
of America, but the schools can be part
of the solution. If politicians want to
talk about real, revolutionary changes
in public education, they need to get
over the argument of local control and
take a leadership position for policies
that will actually work.
The gauntlet has been thrown
down. THUD.
Michael Donley is a senior sociology major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist
P.5. Write Hack
Send letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union* 1400 "R" St., Lincoln,
NE 68588, or fax to (402) 472-1761, or e-mail letters@unl.edu.
Letters must be signed and include a phone number for verification.
