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Attorneys debate Nebraska death row inmate's legal options

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Attorneys for a Nebraska death row inmate say the state's recent struggle over capital punishment has raised new legal questions that they need to explore, while a state attorney says the prisoner has exhausted all options except for clemency.

Attorneys for John Lotter said Tuesday that new questions surfaced after the Legislature's vote to abolish capital punishment, the subsequent ballot measure to reinstate it and the governor's efforts to obtain lethal injection drugs. Lawyers for both sides convened at the federal courthouse in Lincoln.

Lotter was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 slaying of Brandon Teena, a 21-year-old transgender man who was born Teena Brandon, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a rural Humboldt farmhouse. The crime inspired the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry."

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