Judge rejects Jones' death penalty appeal

HARTINGTON – The judge presiding over a Laurel man’s murder case hasn’t changed his mind about Nebraska’s death penalty statutes and denied a motion to declare it unconstitutional.

“The Court comes to the same conclusion it did in March of 2023,” Judge Bryan Meismer wrote in a six-page ruling filed in Cedar County District Court last week.

Forty-four-year-old Jason Jones faces the death penalty for murdering Gene Twiford, Janet Twiford, Dana Twiford and Michele Ebeling, in Laurel on Aug. 4, 2022. His lawyer, Todd Lancaster of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, previously argued and lost a motion to declare the death penalty unconstitutional in 2023.

He renewed his motion again at a hearing last month.

Lancaster said when he previously moved the court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional in 2023, Jones had not yet been convicted and therefore the issue was determined to be premature.

“I’ve been chastised by the appellate courts enough for not renewing objections and making objections at the right time. I’m doing the belts and suspenders thing here. I want to make sure, particularly in this case, as a death penalty, I am not ineffective in not renewing my motions,” Lancaster said at the death penalty hearing last month.

He provided updated evidence of how often the death penalty was used in the United States and in what circumstances, arguing of an evolving standard of decency in applying the death penalty.

Only a handful of states use the death penalty with any frequency, Lancaster said.

Corey O’Brien of the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office pointed to the reinstatement of the death penalty in 2016 by a strong majority of Nebraska voters as an indication that the state’s citizens still see it as a valid punishment.

Meismer ruled against the motion to quash the death penalty in both instances, stating that each of the grounds raised by Lancaster in Jones’ motion have been previously addressed and upheld by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel will convene to consider Jones’ sentencing, however, a date has not been set. Patrick Heng, McCook, and Timothy Burns, Omaha, will join Meismer, who will serve as the presiding judge at sentencing.

The panel will hear evidence of mitigating circumstances, or factors that lessen the severity of the crime or Jones’ culpability. Under state law, mitigating circumstances may include the defendant’s lack of criminal history; if there was unusual pressure or influence by another person; if the crime was committed during extreme mental or emotional disturbance; the age of the defendant; if the defendant’s participation in the crime was minimal; if the victim consented or participated in the crime; and if the defendant was impaired by mental illness or intoxication.

Once the panel hears that evidence, it then convenes in private to weigh whether the mitigators exceed or come close to the weight of the aggravators found by the jury in the case.

The decision must be unanimous in order for the death sentence to be imposed.

If Jones is given a death sentence, an appeal is automatic and goes directly to the Nebraska Supreme Court, bypassing the Nebraska Court of Appeals.