The Latest: 60K sign petition to oppose Nebraska execution
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Latest on Nebraska preparing for its first execution since 1997 (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
Death penalty opponents say they have gathered more than 60,000 signatures calling on Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to stop the state from carrying out its first execution since 1997.
Organizers submitted the petition to Ricketts on Monday after several last-ditch legal efforts failed to halt the execution .
Death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday for the murders of two Omaha cab drivers in 1979.
Death penalty opponents say letting the execution proceed runs afoul of the Catholic Church's recent statement that capital punishment is unacceptable in all cases.
Ricketts has argued he's carrying out the will of voters who chose to reinstate capital punishment after the Legislature abolished it in 2015.
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4 p.m.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska is asking the state Supreme Court to delay the state's first execution in more than two decades.
The ACLU filed the request Monday, saying the execution should be delayed until the court hears arguments in a separate case focused on the Legislature's 2015 vote to abolish capital punishment.
The ACLU argues that even though the 2015 law was later undone by voters, the law changed death-row inmates' sentence to life in prison.
The organization represents eight Nebraska inmates on death row. But not Carey Dean Moore, who is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection.
The ACLU request appears to face long odds. A district judge rejected the argument in February, and the Nebraska Supreme Court has denied other recent attempts to postpone the execution.
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12:35 p.m.
A German pharmaceutical company says it won't ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after losing an appeal in a case that threatened to block Nebraska from carrying out its first execution since 1997.
Drug company Fresenius Kabi recently filed a lawsuit accusing Nebraska prison officials of improperly obtaining its drugs for lethal injections. The company said it doesn't want its drugs used in executions and asked a federal judge to prevent the state from doing so Tuesday.
The judge refused, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision Monday.
An attorney for Fresenius Kabi said later Monday that the company won't pursue an additional review with the nation's highest court.
That means Carey Dean Moore is still scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1979 shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers.
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11:30 a.m.
A federal appeals court has rejected a German pharmaceutical manufacturer's attempt to prevent Nebraska from executing a death-row inmate using drugs that the company says it produced.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge's ruling to let the execution of inmate Carey Dean Moore proceed as planned Tuesday.
The drug company, Fresenius Kabi, contends in a lawsuit that using the drugs for a lethal injection would harm its reputation.
But the appeals court agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf's conclusion that postponing the execution would frustrate the state's interest in carrying out the execution. One of the four drugs in Nebraska's execution protocol expires Aug. 31, and the state says it can't get more.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers.
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11 a.m.
Three years after Nebraska lawmakers voted to abolish capital punishment, the state is preparing to carry out its first execution since 1997 in an about-face driven largely by the state's Republican governor.
Carey Dean Moore is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1979 murders of two Omaha cab drivers. Two drug companies are trying to halt the execution, arguing the state say may be using their drugs.
Gov. Pete Ricketts helped finance a ballot drive to reinstate capital punishment after lawmakers overrode his veto and abolished the death penalty in 2015.
His administration then changed Nebraska's lethal injection protocol to overcome challenges in purchasing the necessary drugs. It also withheld records previously considered public that would identify the state's supplier.
Ricketts argues he was fulfilling the wishes of voters.
