In other news outside of our country's Guantanamo debacle, the state of Nebraska has finally forbidden the use of the electric chair. At this point, Nebraska was the only state to rely on electrocution as the sole method of execution for the death penalty, so this essentially suspends any potential executions in the state in the near future -- mostly because of an ongoing debate in the Supreme Court over the three-chemical combination in a typical lethal injection, which is known to cause extreme pain.

Nebraska's Supreme Court did thankfully rule that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment, saying that it causes “unnecessary pain, suffering and torture.” But they are also, of course, looking for "new methods" of execution, so, as a person who is avidly against the death penalty, I'm not quite sure what to make of their "progress" just yet. It is interesting to note that last year, Nebraska's unicameral legislature was one vote away from abolishing the death penalty entirely in their state...