Nebraska Death Penalty Repealed: Legislature Votes To Abolish Capital Punishment, Governor Vows To Veto

The Nebraska legislature voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to abolish the death penalty in the state. Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican who supports the death penalty, has promised to veto the measure, although lawmakers' 32 - 15 vote in its favor would be sufficient to override that, KETV reported.

The approval came less than a week after Ricketts announced that state officials had bought supplies of the three drugs necessary for lethal injections. Throughout the United States, the death penalty has come under fire in recent months after a series of botched executions in 2014. States have also struggled to secure supplies of drugs needed to carry out lethal injections, due to a boycott by Europe on exporting such drugs to correctional facilities in the United States.

No prisoner on death row has been executed in Nebraska since 1997, and since 1973, only four executions have taken place in the state, the Associated Press reported. The most recent state to ban capital punishment was Maryland in 2013.