Nebraska Outlaws Electric Chair

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court is rejecting the
use of the electric chair to execute prisoners.
And that means Nebraska will have to come up with a new method
of execution -- since, until now, it was the only state in which no
other method was used.
The court says the state legislature may vote to have a death
penalty, but not through electrocution. The justices, in a 6-1
ruling, said evidence shows that electrocution inflicts "intense
pain and agonizing suffering."
In fact, they wrote that it's a practice that is "more
befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than the death
chamber of state prisons.
The state's chief justice dissented, saying he didn't think
electrocution is "cruel and unusual."
The ruling came in the case of a man who was convicted in the
1999 kidnapping and killing of a 3-year-old boy. But the high court
affirmed the death sentence.