Patrick Feller / CC BY 2.0

On Wednesday, the Cornhusker State became the 19th state in the U.S. to rid itself of one of our most archaic laws.

From The Washington Post:

Nebraska lawmakers voted to abolish the death penalty Wednesday, overriding a veto from the governor and making that state the 19th in the country to ban capital punishment.

The narrow vote in Lincoln on Wednesday made Nebraska the first state in two years to formally abandon the death penalty, a decision that comes amid a decline in executions and roiling uncertainty regarding how to carry out lethal injections.

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) had been a vocal critic of the bill before he vetoed it on Tuesday afternoon, writing in a letter to the legislature that it was “cruel” to the relatives of the victims of people sentenced to death.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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