State court says electric chair unconstitutional

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - The Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the state's reliance on the electric chair for executions on Friday as "cruel and unusual" punishment, leaving no alternative method in its place.

"We recognize the temptation to make the prisoner suffer, just as the prisoner made an innocent victim suffer," the court wrote. "But it is the hallmark of a civilized society that we punish cruelty without practicing it."

In its 6-1 ruling, the court said evidence proves that unconsciousness and death are not instantaneous for many prisoners and they could experience intense pain and "agonizing suffering."

Nebraska is the only U.S. state that uses the electric chair as its only means of execution, though a few others still allow prisoners to choose it as an alternative to lethal injection. The other 36 states with capital punishment as well as the federal government all use lethal injection as their sole method.

Executions around the country have been halted since last September while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews a challenge to the use of a cocktail of drugs to put people to death. Defendants argue improperly administered, the drugs can cause extreme and unnecessary pain.

In the Nebraska ruling, the court upheld the first-degree murder conviction of 35-year-old Raymond Mata Jr., who brought the action challenging the state's use of electrocution for executions after he was convicted for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of a 3-year-old boy.

The court said it would not schedule Mata's execution until Nebraska authorities adopt a constitutionally acceptable alternative method for carrying out a death sentence.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Nebraska has put three inmates to death in the electric chair since 1994, the last in December 1997. Mata is currently one of nine inmates on death row there.

The electric chair has been used in the past by more than 25 U.S. states, acquiring nicknames such as 'Old Sparky' and 'Yellow Mama.',

(Reporting by Carey Gillam, editing by Alan Elsner)