Nebraska Supreme Court

Creighton students’ COVID vaccine mandate appeal dismissed

By MARGERY A. BECKAugust 12, 2022 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by a handful of Creighton University students who sought to be exempt from the private Catholic school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year, arguing that getting the shots would violate their religious beliefs against abortion.

Nebraska Supreme Court denies appeal of death row inmate

June 24, 2022 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday denied the postconviction appeal of a death row inmate who said his defense attorney was so inept that his right to a fair trial had been compromised.

Chief justice: Technology helped courts adapt to pandemic

January 21, 2022 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska's courts have adapted well to the coronavirus pandemic with help from new technology, but the judicial branch is struggling with worker shortages, the state's top judge said Friday.

Nebraska court says death row inmate can’t be own lawyer

October 8, 2021 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man sentenced to death for the killing and dismemberment of a Lincoln woman he met on the date app Tinder will not get to serve as his own attorney in his automatic appeal.

Man condemned for killing Tinder date seeks to be own lawyer

September 22, 2021 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man sentenced to death for the killing and dismemberment of a Lincoln woman he met on the dating app Tinder is seeking to fire his team of attorneys and represent himself in his appeal.

Nebraska court upholds reinstatement of Omaha firefighter

August 6, 2021 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday largely upheld an arbitrator's decision that an Omaha fire union leader should have been suspended, rather than fired, for his actions during an encounter with a Black woman at a bar in 2018.

Nebraska court rejects inmate’s request for new murder trial

June 11, 2021 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man serving a life sentence for murdering an Omaha woman in 1999 failed Friday to win a new trial despite his claims that follow-up DNA testing exonerated him.

The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Daryle Duncan.

Prosecutor, attorney reprimanded for ‘banishment’ scheme

By MARGERY A. BECKJune 4, 2021 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A prosecutor and a defense attorney in Nebraska have been reprimanded for a scheme reminiscent of the Wild West in which they told two convicted criminals to get out of town and never return.

Town set to grow after Nebraska Supreme Court takes its side

May 29, 2021 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A town southwest of Omaha is poised to double in size and add nearly 3,000 people after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in its favor in an annexation dispute with its home county.

Nebraska Supreme Court rules text messages were admissible in conviction of drug dealer

By Paul Hammel World-Herald BureauDecember 16, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — “Just because incriminating text messages came from my cellphone doesn’t mean I sent them.” That was the basic argument made by a convicted drug dealer that was rejected Friday by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

DACA, death penalty, checks & balances: Nebraska Supreme Court fields questions in Schuyler, chief justice’s alma mater

MARGARET REIST Lincoln Journal StarNovember 4, 2018 GMT

SCHUYLER — Delvan del-Cid stood at a microphone Friday morning facing the Nebraska Supreme Court from the familiar, glossy wood floor of the Schuyler High School gym — and the eleventh-grader had a question.

NPPD discount for long-term power contracts upheld by Nebraska Supreme Court

By Aaron Sanderford World-Herald staff writerJune 16, 2018 GMT

The Nebraska Public Power District was well within its rights to offer local and regional wholesale power customers discounts off of shared labor costs for signing long-term contracts, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Nebraska Supreme Court affirms sentence for man who killed sister when he was 14

JoANNE YOUNG Lincoln Journal StarJune 3, 2018 GMT

In 1987, Sydney Thieszen committed a horrific crime as a 14-year-old.

Nebraska's highest court said Friday it supported his resentencing last year from life without parole to a minimum of 70 years in prison.

6 people, including Douglas County District Court judge, apply to be on Nebraska Supreme Court

By Emily Nitcher World-Herald BureauApril 27, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — A Douglas County District Court judge is among six applicants to replace Judge John Wright on the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Wright, the senior member of the court, died in March after a long fight with cancer.

State Supreme Court says Bob Krist’s name can stay on ballot

By Roseann Moring World-Herald staff writerMarch 21, 2018 GMT

State Sen. Bob Krist’s name will appear on the Democratic gubernatorial primary ballot in May after a ruling from the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Omaha, La Vista attorneys chosen as finalists for Nebraska Supreme Court vacancy

By Joe Duggan World-Herald BureauMarch 14, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — A judicial nominating commission selected four lawyers Monday as finalists to fill the vacancy on the Nebraska Supreme Court created by the sudden resignation of Judge Max Kelch.

Ruling adds to Omaha man’s life sentence for strangling family friend

By Joe Duggan World-Herald BureauMarch 11, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new sentence Friday that adds years to a life term already being served by an Omaha man who strangled a close friend in 2015.

The ruling makes it more certain that 30-year-old Matthew Kidder will die in prison for the murder of Jessica Nelson.

Judge Max Kelch to step down from Nebraska Supreme Court

By Joe Duggan World-Herald BureauJanuary 26, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — Nebraska Supreme Court Judge Max Kelch will step down Feb. 15, less than two years after he joined the high court.

Kelch submitted a two-sentence resignation letter this week to Gov.

State budget cuts will make it impossible to expand probation services, says Nebraska Supreme Court chief justice

By Joe Duggan / World-Herald BureauJanuary 20, 2018 GMT

LINCOLN — Judicial programs that help lighten the load on Nebraska’s overburdened corrections system could stagnate under budget cuts, the state’s top judge said Thursday.

For example, about 15 percent of people who have completed probation commit new offenses after release, a rate called “extraordinarily good” by Supreme Court Justice Mike Heavican in his annual State of the Judiciary address.

Jose Sandoval, convicted in Norfolk bank robbery killings, will challenge state’s plans to execute him

By Joe Duggan / World-Herald BureauDecember 4, 2017 GMT

LINCOLN — The man now in line to be the first Nebraska death row inmate executed by lethal injection says he will fight the state’s efforts to put him to death.

Jose Sandoval said in letters mailed to The World-Herald that defense lawyers “sought me out” shortly after prison officials formally notified Sandoval on Nov.

Nebraska Supreme Court says prison supervisor won’t have to pay lost wages to suspended employee

By Joe Duggan / World-Herald BureauSeptember 19, 2017 GMT

LINCOLN — A prison supervisor ordered to pay almost $50,000 to an employee he suspended in 2010 has won a reversal from the Nebraska Supreme Court.

A lower court in 2015 dismissed the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services from a lawsuit filed by William White, a corrections officer at the Tecumseh State Prison who was suspended then fired after being charged with a crime unrelated to his employment.

Suit against NCORPE project fails

By Job Vigil jvigil@nptelegraph.comApril 8, 2017 GMT

Court rejects argument that the agency lacked eminent domain authority

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday upheld a decision by the Lincoln County District Court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging several actions and authorities of the Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement Project.

Nebraska Supreme Court hears arguments in Betancourt-Garcia case

Andrea LarsonOctober 10, 2016 GMT

NORFOLK - The Johnny Carson Theatre was transformed on Friday from a center for the arts into one of the country’s highest courts.

The seven Nebraska Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in two cases.

Nebraska Supreme Court orders new trial in Omaha killings

By MARGERY A. BECKApril 22, 2016 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new trial Friday for a man serving three life sentences for the shooting deaths of three Omaha men in a robbery gone wrong, saying prosecutors improperly relied on hearsay evidence to convict him.