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The Dance of Death in Nebraska
By Doug Patton
September 30, 2002

Lisa Bryant had been married for only one month. She was 29.

Lola Elwood and her family belonged to the First United Methodist Church and enjoyed camping together. She was 43.

Jo Ann Mausbach loved her job and took pleasure in helping run the family farm, but her life revolved around her husband, Dave and their two children. She was 42.

Sam Sun loved opera. He and his wife, Joan, had raised two sons together. He was 50.

Evonne Tuttle was 37. After working at various jobs to support herself and her three children, Evonne had finally found her calling working for a local weekly newspaper.

Last Thursday morning, Lisa, Lola, Jo Ann and Sam were working together at a branch of the U.S. Bank in Norfolk, Nebraska. Evonne was the bank's lone customer. Shortly after 8:30 a.m., three young Hispanic males walked into the bank, intending to rob it. A fourth remained in the car for a quick escape.

What happened next will be grist for the evidence mill for a decade, as these four punks sit in courtrooms, defended by bleeding-heart ACLU lawyers, and challenge our right to put them to death.

Less than a minute into the bungled robbery, Lisa, Lola, Jo Ann, Sam and Evonne lay dead on the floor, a bullet through each of their heads. Another woman narrowly escaped as she entered the bank, realized what was happening and caught a bullet in the shoulder as she turned and ran.

As the trio fled the bank, they discovered their driver had panicked and driven away without them. They stole a car, which they soon abandoned in favor of a pickup truck, but they and their hapless getaway driver were all captured in the town of O'Neil, not many miles away, before the day was out.

A preliminary investigation indicated that no money had been stolen from the bank. The murdered victims left behind grieving spouses, extended families, friends and a combined total of 11 children - devastated loved ones whose shattered lives will never be the same.

If the averages hold up, the families of the victims will still be waiting for this open-and-shut case of cold-blooded murder to come to trial a year from now. In this case, there is a legal minefield the state must traverse before a decision can even be made to seek the death penalty.

In June of this year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that if a sentence of death is to be pronounced, it must come from a jury, not a judge. Nebraska law still calls for such sentences to be handed down by judges.

Also, Nebraska's only method of execution is the electric chair, and there is concern that a "cruel and unusual" ruling may emanate at any moment from the courts.

There is talk of a special legislative session to deal with both issues, but attempts have been made in the past to add lethal injection as an alternative form of capital punishment in Nebraska, only to be thwarted by one state senator, Ernie Chambers, who knows how to manipulate the legislative system better than anyone alive. Chambers wants the courts to find electrocution "cruel and unusual" and therefore opposes any change in the statute.

The dance of death has begun in Nebraska. It will play out from bloody crime scene to execution chamber, and it will be debated until we, the people, finally tire of hearing excuses for delayed justice. It took twelve long years to execute confessed child murderer John Joubert in 1996. We can't get this one wrong.

Some crimes are so heinous they cry out for the ultimate penalty. This is axiomatic to the American people, if not to cloistered judges and liberal legislators.