S-17-0577) State v. Nikko Jenkins (Appellant)
S-17-0657) State v. Nikko Jenkins (Appellant)
Douglas County, Judge Peter C. Bataillon
Attorneys: Thomas C. Riley (Public Defender)(Appellant) --- James D. Smith (Solicitor General) --- Brian William Stull & Amy Fettig (American Civil Liberties Union Foundation) & Amy A. Miller (ACLU of Nebraska Foundation)(Brief of Amici National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Disability Rights Network and Nine Mental Health Experts)
Criminal: Plea; 1st degree murder; use of firearm to commit felony; possession of firearm by prohibited person
Proceedings Below: Appellant was convicted based on his pleas of no contest and was sentenced to death and a combined term of 450 to 500 years in prison.
Issues: 1) The trial court abused its discretion in accepting the no-contest plea, with no factual basis and no affirmative evidence of a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of trial rights. Such abuse of discretion violates the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Sections 3 and 11 of the Nebraska Constitution. 2) The trial court committed reversible error when it allowed the Appellant to proceed pro se and act as his own attorney in violation of the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Sections 3 and 11 of the Nebraska Constitution. 3) The sentencing panel erred by failing to give meaningful consideration to his lifelong serious mental illness, his unfulfilled request for commitment before the crime, and the debilitating impact of solitary confinement in violation of Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Sections 3 and 9 of the Nebraska Constitution. 4) The trial court committed reversible error when it denied the Appellant's motion to find that Nebraska's statutory death penalty sentencing procedure violates the sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Sections 3 and 6 of the Nebraska Constitution. 5) The trial court committed reversible error by denying the Appellant's motion to preclude the death penalty in this case as a violation of the ex post facto prohibitions contained in Article I Sections 9 and 10 of the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 16 of the Nebraska Constitution. 6) The Appellant's pleas of no contest, his convictions, and sentences are constitutionally infirm as they are the product of the trial courts erroneous determination that the Appellant was competent to proceed to trial and sentencing and therefore violate the due process clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 3 of the Nebraska Constitution. 7) The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment when imposed upon seriously mentally ill offenders and individuals with intellectual disability and violates the Eighth amendment to the United States Constitution, Article I Section 9 of the Nebraska Constitution and Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-105.01. 8) The sentencing panel erred by sentencing Jenkins to death based on facts alleged during the no-contest plea proceeding. 9) The death penalty in all cases violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 9 of the Nebraska Constitution.