The attorney for convicted murderer Carey Dean Moore has two weeks to respond to prosecutors' argument that federal court, not Douglas County District Court, is the proper place to challenge Nebraska's purchase of a drug used in its lethal injection protocol.
Jerry Soucie, who works for the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, has challenged the state's purchase of sodium thiopental from a company in India. The drug is a fast-acting sedative that would be the first of three used in an execution.
Moore, 53, is scheduled to be put to death June 14. He would be the first on Nebraska's death row executed by lethal injection.
Moore was sentenced to die in 1980 for the murders of Omaha cabdrivers Reuel Van Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland, both 47.
At a Tuesday hearing, Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka gave Soucie until June 7 to respond to prosecutors' motion to dismiss the matter. He then gave prosecutors three days to respond to Soucie's filing.
Soucie argues that Kayem Pharmaceutical of Mumbai, India, has not complied with federal regulations for manufacturing and importing drugs.
Using a drug obtained from an unregistered manufacturer and distributor creates a risk that the drug would not work properly and that the execution would be botched, Soucie said. That, he said, would violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
In addition, Soucie said the Nebraska Legislature unconstitutionally allowed the Department of Correctional Services to decide the process and drugs to be used for lethal injection.
He also argues that the Legislature overstepped its bounds by passing a law that changes Moore's sentence of death by electrocution.
The Legislature changed the state's method of execution after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair, the state's previous method, was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
The state high court still must act on another request, filed last week, to delay Moore's execution.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com
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