California, Nebraska, and Oklahoma Vote in Favor of Death Penalty Measures

California, Nebraska, and Oklahoma approve death penalty measures on Election Day.

Lethal injection room
Unapproved Source

San Quentin State Prison lethal injection room.

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Unapproved Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

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Lethal injection room

Tuesday’s election saw California approve recreational marijuana and reject a measure to ban capital punishment. Likewise, Nebraska and Oklahoma voted in favor of the death penalty, reportedReuters.

California, where a federal judge previously ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional, voted against banning the death penalty by an eight point margin, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The state did vote in favor of speeding up death row cases, with 50.9 percent voting in favor. California has the largest population on death row of any state with about 750 people, though the state hasn’t executed anyone since 2006.

Despite Nebraska approving a death penalty ban last year, 61.2 percent of voters elected to reinstate it, said Nebraska’s Secretary of State. The ban had replaced the death penalty with life without parole.

By a two-to-one margin, Oklahoma voters chose to keep the death penalty and allow for “any method of execution not prohibited by the United States Constitution.” Oklahoma suffered problems with execution methods in 2014 and 2015, leading them to put a temporary stop to executions. In 2014 the state had a “troubled” lethal injection, and last year had the wrong drugs delivered, twice, to an execution.

Executions in states like Nebraska that still carry the death penalty have been put on hold over legal battles or lethal injection shortages because of a pharmaceutical company sales ban. There are currently 19 states that don't have the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

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