Attorney General Jon Bruning continues to bring shame upon himself and the state of Nebraska with his endless capacity for ambition-fueled hypocrisy. Let's take another look at the statement his office released when the State Supreme Court found electrocution an unconstitutional method of capital punishment:
Attorney General Jon Bruning today announced that he will file a motion to reconsider this morning's Nebraska Supreme Court ruling. In the ruling, the court says electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment under Nebraska's constitution.
"I'm surprised and disappointed with the ruling and think the court is mistaken," said Bruning. "I think the decision is incorrect as a matter of law, and we intend to ask the court to reconsider it."
The court's ruling strikes down the state's only method of execution. The decision was made in the case of child killer Raymond Mata of Scottsbluff.
"Nebraskans overwhelmingly support the death penalty and justice demands our state has a constitutional method of execution," Bruning said.
Today, Bruning filed his motion appealing the Supreme Court's decision. Thankfully, Sen. Ernie Chambers was prepared with proof of Bruning's characteristically unprincipled flip-flop on this issue:
Sen. Ernie Chambers finds Attorney General John Bruning's filing today for another hearing on the Nebraska Supreme Court's ruling on the electric chair interesting in light of past testimony by Bruning when he was a state senator....
[Chambers] detailed statements Bruning made in testimony to the Judiciary Committee when he introduced a lethal injection bill in 2001. That testimony contradicted statements he made Feb. 8....
[According to Chambers, Bruning said in his] 2001 testimony...states are moving away from electrocution to lethal injection. "I believe ultimately that will result in Nebraska's penalty being declared unconstitutional," Bruning said.
"How can the Attorney General claim surprise when what he predicted in 2001 came to pass in 2008," Chambers asked in the brief.
He also quoted testimony in which Bruning said he believes the electric chair to be cruel and unusual punishment, but continued to support the death penalty.
"I believe personally," Bruning said, "it is cruel and unusual. And it is unnecessary and we can move to lethal injection to cure that problem."
We all know the value of Bruning's personal beliefs, but this is truly beneath contempt. He personally believed electrocution was "cruel and unusual" right up until calculating there were more political points to be gained by attacking the State Supreme Court for making a decision he'd predicted and supported himself as a State Senator.
That Bruning would join in the Republican Party's assault on Nebraska's Supreme Court is an outrageous insult to the office he holds. But, that's nothing compared to this cruel and unusual-hypocrisy revealing the true depths of Bruning's political depravity.
There is no limit to Bruning's thirst for power. Here, it is a thirst for blood, and his monstrous ambition now lusts for that blood anyway he can get it - even well-cooked. |
