Death-row inmate's attorney asks to depose Bruning, others
The lawyer for death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore is asking to depose Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and other state officials in an effort to get to the bottom of why they continued to push for his client's execution when they did not have a legal drug on hand to put him to death.
In a filing late Monday in Douglas County District Court, Jerry Soucie of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy argued it was cruel and unusual punishment to allow Moore to think his execution was looming when, in fact, the state had no way to carry it out.
Moore had been scheduled to die June 14, but the Nebraska Supreme Court issued a stay while Soucie challenged the purchase from an Indian company of one of the drugs used in Nebraska's execution protocol. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said after the purchase the drug could not be used because the state did not have a license to import it.
Sodium thiopental -- one of three drugs in Nebraska's lethal-injection protocol -- has been in short supply since last year, when the only U.S. manufacturer, Hospira Inc., said it was ending production because of death-penalty opposition overseas.
In July, Soucie asked Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka to vacate Moore's death sentence, arguing state officials had withheld information about problems with the lethal-injection drug they bought from India.
The judge gave him until Monday to amend the motion challenging the purchase of the drug.
Soucie is seeking a court order directing the state to disclose all emails, letters, notes and other correspondence between Department of Correctional Services employees and the attorney general's office about how it obtained sodium thiopental. He also seeks information about discussions and correspondence between state officials and federal agencies whether the state was complying with federal drug regulations.
Soucie asked to take depositions of those who he said had direct knowledge of the facts.
Among them: Bruning; Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown; Nebraska Deputy Attorney General Dale Comer; DCS Director Robert Houston; DCS General Counsel George Green and DCS Pharmacist Steve Urosevich.
In the filing, he argued he had made good-faith attempts to get the information from the attorney general's office and DCS, but they stonewalled.
Soucie alleged that the AG's office and DCS became aware of a DEA issue with the state's sodium thiopental in April, but continued to attempt to go forward with Moore's execution without advising him or the state Supreme Court until June 27.
He alleged that "Nebraska, through the actions of the AG's office and DCS, was engaged in a sham execution," and that the information he is seeking may help avoid perpetrating a fraud "by allowing the Nebraska courts to make a life or death decision based upon inaccurate and/or incomplete information."
Soucie also cited a letter from Dr. Steven Miles, an expert on torture, who gave his opinion that Moore was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment: Cruel because of the mental suffering likely after they told him his execution had been ordered, his appeals had been exhausted and a time had been set for his death; and unusual because a "sham execution" had not been part of his sentence.
Moore, 53, has been on death row since 1980, sentenced to die for killing Omaha cab drivers Maynard D. Helgeland and Reuel Eugene Van Ness during botched robberies in 1979.
The AG's office did not return a call late in the day seeking comment on the filing. But the AG's office has said it worked under the belief it could have found a supply of the drug by June 14.
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