The Nebraska Supreme Court held Friday that the use of the electric chair constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state’s constitution. The court found that prisoners may retain enough consciousness to suffer from the high voltage electric current during the electrocution process.
The case before the court involved an appeal by Raymond Mata, Jr. of his death sentence for a 1999 murder. The court stayed Mata’s execution as it had earlier the execution of Carey Dean Moore following a request by a state senator to review the constitutionality of electrocution by electric chair.
Nebraska was the only state that allowed execution by electric chair as its only method of execution.
Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/nebraska-supreme-court-rules-electric.php
