Opinion ID: 1912613
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: This Court's Duty to Safeguard Constitutional Rights

Text: It is our duty to protect the constitutional rights afforded under both the federal and state Constitutions. [127] We conclude that we can no longer rely on the factual assumptions implicit in U.S. Supreme Court precedent pertaining to the constitutionality of execution by, electrocution. Because we are now presented with evidence of a nature and quality that the Supreme Court never considered when it held electrocution was not cruel and unusual punishment, we cannot rationally defer to federal precedent. As discussed, we cannot determine how the U.S. Supreme Court would decide a challenge to electrocution as a method of execution under the federal Constitution if it were presented with this evidence. Bat we note that some of the Court's recent decisions and dissents have called attention to outdated factual assumptions in the Court's precedent. [128] We also know that the Court is highly unlikely to accept an appeal on the issue from any other jurisdiction that has electrocution as an alternative method of execution, The Court has held that a condemned prisoner waives a constitutional challenge to a method of execution if he or she voluntarily selects that method. [129] Only in Nebraska is electrocution the mandated method of execution; there is no alternative. [130] We reject the dissent's suggestion that we are bound by questionable federal precedent and should allow Mata to attempt a further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not our function to predict whether the Supreme Court would grant a writ of certiorari in this case. But it is our duty as constitutional officers to decide the challenge presented in this automatic appeal, based on the record of the case, as tried and decided. And we will not shirk or abdicate our duty to safeguard the constitutional rights afforded by our state Constitution. We conclude that whether electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment is an issue that has fallen to this court to determine.