Nebraska AG vows to kill inmate . . . somehow

It's frustrating ... I'm angry that we're worried about cruel and unusual punishment. — Nebraska's Republican Governor, Dave Heineman

The U.S. DEA said in April that the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services did not have a license to import the sodium thiopental and could not use it to execute Carey Dean Moore. But Republican State Attorney General Jon Bruning's office continued to push for a June 14 execution date for Moore even though it knew — but did not publicize — that it could not use the drug.

Moore was initially sentenced to die by electric chair, but in 2008 the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled 6-1 electrocution constituted cruel and unusual punishment, immediately following which Bruning said he would "move to the legislative process to get a new method of execution."

This he did, and on May 28, 2008, Heineman approved amendments to the State statutes that provided for death by intravenous injection of a lethal substance. Sodium thiopental is the first of three drugs to be injected. Trouble is, there are no U.S. suppliers of the anaesthetic, the last one having abandoned its importation from an Italian plant in January, 2011, citing misuse of its product by death penalty States.

Thus did Nebraska import a supply from a Mumbai firm, which shipped 500 grams in December, 2010. But lo and behold, Nebraska did not have a proper license to do so, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had informed the State's Department of Justice of the same in April.

Now, according to Carey Dean Moore's counsel, Jon Bruning concealed this fact from the Nebraska Supreme Court as the Attorney General's office argued for Moore's execution on June 14. That can't be good.

Judge allows inmate's attorney to amend execution challenge

Talk about yer botched executions. Bruning is running for U.S. Senate.