The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 In November 2016, three referenda were held, in California, Nebraska and Oklahoma, respectively. Voters were asked to choose between retaining or repealing the laws on the death penalty.101 In all three states, voters decided to reject measures that would have abolished the death penalty. In the case of Oklahoma, the outcome gave lawmakers more latitude to find new execution methods.102 The majority of voters in California opted to reject a proposal that would have abolished the death penalty, and, in the same referendum, they decided by a very narrow margin to pass a measure that would effectively speed up the pace of executions.103 In Nebraska, a bill passed in May 2015 that abolished the death penalty was repealed. This bill was a source of conflict between the Nebraska lawmakers who passed the legislation and Nebraska’s Governor, who defined it as “cruel” to the victims of people sentenced to death and vowed to veto it.104 Furthermore, Oklahoma voted to provide explicit constitutional protections for its death penalty, which will prevent state courts from deeming the practice unconstitutional. Sixty-seven per cent of voters were in favor of State Question No. 776, the so called “Death Penalty Amendment”, which will add a new section to the Oklahoma Constitution stating that “any method of execution shall be allowed, unless prohibited by the United States Constitution” and that the method “shall not be deemed to be, or to constitute, the infliction of cruel or unusual punishments.”105 In Colorado, a bill to repeal the death penalty failed in February 2017.106 In October 2016, Ohio announced the reinstatement of capital punishment after a nearly three-year moratorium on executions following concerns regarding the mixture of drugs used for lethal injections by the state.107 In May 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court reaffirmed a decision from 2015 that the remaining death row prisoners must be resentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Other positive developments were reported from Delaware, where in August 2016 the state Supreme Court declared the state’s capital sentencing procedures unconstitutional, leaving Delaware without a valid death penalty 101  “Pro-Death Penalty Referenda Prevail in 3 States; Kansas Retains 4 Justices Attacked for Death Penalty Decisions”, Death Penalty Information Center, <https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6599>. 102  Mark Berman, “Nebraska and California voters decide to keep the death penalty”, The Washington Post, 9 November 2016, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/09/nebraska-and-california-voters-decide-to-keep-the-death-penalty/?utm_term=.3219ec9848e7 103  Ibid. 104  Ibid. 105  State Question Number 776, Legislative Referendum Number 367, <https://www.sos.ok.gov/documents/ questions/776.pdf?3,9>. 106  “The unlikely movement that could finally kill the death penalty in the US”, Quartz, 23 March 2017, <https:// qz.com/938618/aramis-ayala-orange-osceola-state-attorney-in-florida-is-just-one-of-the-prosecutors-pushing-tophase-out-the-death-penalty-in-the-united-States/>. 107  See “The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2014” (OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2014)), page 31, at <http://www.osce.org/odihr/124105?download=true>. 33