LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska lawmakers rejected a measure to repeal the death penalty Tuesday, a month after the courts left the state with no way to execute its killers.

Twenty senators voted for the bill (LB1063) that would have changed the maximum penalty to life in prison without possibility of parole. It would have taken 25 votes to move past the first round of debate and 30 votes to overcome an expected veto from Republican Gov. Dave Heineman.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said the vote was no surprise, but that he ended his career as he started it - fighting for what his conscience told him was right. Term limits will push Chambers, who has introduced bills to repeal the death penalty every year for the past three decades, out of the Capitol after this legislative session.

"Years down the line I can live a lot more comfortably with what I've done these 38 years than what my colleagues can do," Chambers said.

Senators voted down a similar repeal measure in the first round last year by just one vote. Bills must go through three rounds before they get final approval.

Heineman applauded the vote, and said the focus now should be on deciding a legal method of execution for the state.

The state Supreme Court ruled in February that the electric chair, the state's sole means of putting inmates to death, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The most likely alternative - lethal injection - is under federal review in a Kentucky case that questions whether the execution drugs commonly used risk causing excruciating pain, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by June.

Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, who along with Chambers led the charge to repeal the death penalty, shrugged off questions about whether Chambers' departure might hurt chances the death penalty will be abolished in the future. Ashford has his sights set on a possible lethal injection debate.

"If we don't pass a bill on lethal injection, we don't have a death penalty," Ashford said shortly after the vote Tuesday.

Heineman could bring legislation to change the method of execution this session, or he could call a special session. He said he had not decided whether to do either.

But Chambers said there's a good chance the full Legislature won't consider lethal injection this year.

He said he believed members of the Judiciary Committee would not advance a bill to change the method of execution. It would take 30 votes to override the committee, which Chambers said his opponents don't have.

"It would be foolish for the governor to call a special session," Chambers said. "My term doesn't end until January of next year."

The last execution in the state was in 1997, when Robert Williams was put to death by electrocution.

Death row inmate Carey Dean Moore was scheduled to be executed in May of last year, but the Nebraska Supreme Court halted it less than a week before he was supposed to be put to death. The court said at the time it must reconsider whether the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment given a "changing legal landscape."

The court said in its February opinion that evidence shows that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering" and that it "has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison.

The state attorney general has asked state Supreme Court justices to reconsider their ruling on the electric chair, although he said he doesn't expect them to change their minds. He's still considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.