LINCOLN — Starting Monday, Nebraska will again have an approved method of executing people on death row.
That’s when rules and regulations for carrying out lethal injections will go into effect.
The regulations carry out a law passed last year changing the state’s method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection.
But legal challenges expected from death penalty opponents mean it could be years before anyone is put to death in the state.
Jill Francke, statewide coordinator for Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, said she expects the state will schedule an execution date soon. Legal attacks on the new execution method will quickly follow, she said.
“I would say that litigation is imminent,” Francke said. “There’s no way there is not going to be years of litigation. We’re seeing legislation go into effect that will cost taxpayers untold amounts of money.”
Gov. Dave Heineman approved the rules and regulations for lethal injections Wednesday. His spokeswoman, Jen Rae Hein, referred questions to the Attorney General’s Office.
Allen Forkner, a spokesman for Attorney General Jon Bruning, said he could not speculate on possible litigation. He declined to comment further.
Earlier this week, Bruning’s office hailed a federal appeals court ruling upholding the lethal injection protocol in Arkansas.
“We’re confident of the constitutionality of Nebraska’s lethal-injection protocol, and this ruling reinforces that confidence,” Forkner said Monday, after the appeals court ruled.
As spelled out in the new rules, Nebraska’s execution protocol would be similar to the practices used in Arkansas and other states that carry out the death penalty by lethal injection.
It would involve three drugs given in succession — an anesthetic, a paralyzing agent and, finally, a drug to stop the prisoner’s heart.
The rules set the order and dosage of the drugs.
The warden would to do “consciousness checks” after the first drug is administered. The checks are to determine whether the prisoner is anesthetized before giving the second drug, a paralyzing agent.
A team of at least 12 people would be required to carry out an execution.
None would have to be a licensed health care professional, although two team members would have to get training as emergency medical technicians and in drawing blood and starting IV lines.
The execution team would include the department director, the Nebraska State Penitentiary warden, the penitentiary staff communicator, at least seven people to escort the prisoner and a two-person IV team. The IV team would start an intravenous line and administer the drugs when the director ordered.
Dawn-Renee Smith, spokeswoman for the State Department of Corrections, said it will be a while before the department can request an execution date because of preparations needed to use the new protocol.
She did not immediately know when the preparations might be completed.
Nebraska has been without an execution method since early 2008, when the State Supreme Court struck down the use of the electric chair, saying it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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