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A Norfolk bank robber and killer could be executed five times, if it were possible. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed five death sentences for Jorge Galindo, who was convicted in 2004 of murdering five people in Norfolk two years earlier. Galindo was one of three robbers who entered the U.S. Bank in Norfolk in 2002. Inside the bank, Galindo, Jose Sandoval and Eric Vela murdered four bank employees and one customer. A jury convicted Galindo on five counts of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death for each murder. The sentences were reviewed by the state’s highest court, which issued a precedent- setting 76-page ruling. In Nebraska, every death sentence must be reviewed by the Nebraska Supreme Court, under a 2002 law. This is the first death sentence review since the law was enacted. The court found no errors in Galindo's five sentences of death. Galindo is the first of the three Norfolk bank murderers to have his death sentences reviewed by the court. Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Klein handled the case. After the ruling Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said the extreme level of violence and senseless loss of life in this case demanded the ultimate punishment. “Today the Court reaffirmed the death penalty still exists in Nebraska,” Bruning said. Last year, the Nebraska Legislture changed the method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection, after the Supreme Court ruled the electric chair was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
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