[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., GA., ALA., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 1



TEXAS:

He Makes A Living Watching Death


Depending on who you ask, Michael Graczyk is either known or notorious for
writing about what goes on inside the death chamber in Huntsville. Graczyk
is a reporter for the Associated Press. His assignment is reporting on
executions.

He has witnessed more lethal injections than any one else in the state.

"You're there in the same room with either the inmates' loved ones or
friends he invited to his execution, or you're in an adjacent room with
relatives of the victim. So you really have to keep your emotions in
check," said Graczyk.

He recalls his 1st execution in March 1984. J.D. "Cowboy" Autry was put to
death. One of his pen pals was there that day, emotional as she watched
Autry's last minutes.

Graczyk recalled, "I can still hear her sobbing about what pretty eyes he
had. As the drugs took affect, his eyes closed and he slipped into
unconsciousness. She's very emotional and sobbing, and a few minutes
later, his eyes popped open."

Then there's Jonathan Nobles. He sang "Silent Night" for his last words.
In the middle of the song, the drugs began taking affect and Nobles
started gasping for air. Now, whenever Graczyk hears that song, he can't
help but think of Nobles.

With such close ties to death row, many believe Graczyk must be an
advocate of the death penalty.

Graczyk told us, "I don't answer that question. Never have never will."

(source: WOAI News)

**************************

High court tosses case of Texas death row fixture----Dallas man's appeal
sent back to lower court


Supreme Court to hear Houston death row case Court tosses case of Texas
death row fixture Justices rule police can't be sued by fleeing drivers
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sent back to a lower court
the appeal of the inmate who has been on Texas' death row the longest,
citing faulty jury instructions that led the court to reject the death
sentences of three other Texas killers last week.

Without commenting, the high court threw out a decision by the U.S. 5th
Circuit Court of Appeals and returned Ronald Chambers' case to the New
Orleans-based court for more work in light of last week's rulings.

Monday's order means that Chambers will get another chance to argue that
jurors in his case were prevented from properly weighing mitigating
evidence that might have persuaded them to spare his life. The Dallas man
has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death 3 times in the
robbery, abduction and murder of one college student and the beating of
another.

31 years on death row

Chambers arrived on Texas' death row more than 31 years ago, just before
his 21st birthday. He was last scheduled for execution in January and won
a reprieve from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who wanted to wait
until similar appeals on jury instructions in the other Texas cases were
decided. On Monday, just days after the high court ruled in favor of the
other inmates, it accepted Chambers' appeal, threw out the 5th Circuit's
ruling and sent the case back for "further consideration."

His lawyer, James W. "Wes" Volberding of Tyler, said the reason his client
avoided execution this long is that errors in his prosecution were
"serious enough to require new trials."

The current appeal is based on an affidavit by the jury forewoman in
Chambers' 3rd trial, who said she and another juror, considering Chambers'
background and his apparent remorse, wanted to give him a life prison
sentence, but couldn't if they were to follow the jury instructions. A
death sentence requires a unanimous jury verdict.

"We're hopeful the 5th Circuit will give him a new sentencing hearing,"
Volberding said.

It would then be up to prosecutors to decide whether to seek the death
penalty a 4th time.

Chambers was convicted in the 1975 murder of Mike McMahan, a 22-year-old
Texas Tech student from Washington state. Chambers and Clarence Ray
Williams had carjacked McMahan as he and Deia Sutton, a University of
Texas at Arlington student, were leaving a Dallas nightclub.

Williams drove to a levee on the Trinity River south of Dallas and he and
Chambers pushed the couple down an embankment. Chambers fired five shots
at them and left them for dead. He and Williams returned when they heard
McMahan calling out to check on Sutton. Chambers finished off McMahan by
beating him in the head with his shotgun as Williams tried to drown
Sutton. Sutton survived and walked to a hotel to call police.

Chambers' 1st conviction was thrown out 8 years later by the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals, which ruled that a state-appointed psychiatrist had
failed to warn Chambers that his answers to questions could be used
against him at his sentencing trial.

Instructions debated

Chambers was retried in 1985 and convicted. The U.S. Supreme Court
rejected the conviction because prosecutors had improperly excluded 3
African-Americans from Chambers' jury. Chambers is black.

In 1992, Chambers was again convicted and sentenced to death, but appealed
based on the jury instructions, which by then had been rejected by the
Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

Texas jurors determining murderers' sentences were once asked whether the
murder was deliberate and whether the killer would continue to be
dangerous in the future. 2 "yes" answers meant a death sentence. 1 or 2
"no" answers meant a life prison term.

After the Supreme Court found those instructions inadequate, Texas judges
crafted additional instructions, telling jurors that if they thought there
was any mitigating evidence that warranted sparing the killer's life, they
could simply change one of their "yes" answers to "no." Those were the
rules in effect when Chambers was tried for the 3rd time.

The high court has since rejected that approach as well, and now Texas
jurors must answer a third catch-all question, asking whether any
mitigating evidence in the case is strong enough to spare the killer's
life.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

*********************

Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Mexican Death Row Inmate


The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from a Mexican
citizen on death row in Texas whose case has embroiled the World Court,
the Bush administration and the State of Texas in a conflict that has only
deepened in the two years since the justices last considered how to
resolve it.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

The World Court found that Jos E. Medelln did not receive help from Mexico
required by a treaty. The inmate, Jos E. Medelln, is one of 50 Mexicans on
death rows in various states who, the World Court found in 2004, had been
charged and tried without the assistance from Mexican diplomats to which
an international treaty entitled them.

The United States is a signatory to the treaty, the Vienna Convention on
Consular Relations, which requires local authorities to inform foreign
nationals being held on criminal charges of the right to consult with
their countrys diplomats. The requirement was, until recently, widely
ignored.

In the World Court, formally known as the International Court of Justice,
Mexico sued the United States on behalf of its citizens who had been
sentenced to death without receiving the required "consular notification."
The court ruled that the United States was obliged to have the defendants'
cases reopened and reconsidered.

Initially, the Bush administration described Mexico's suit as "an
unjustified, unwise and ultimately unacceptable intrusion in the United
States criminal justice system." But in early 2005, with Mr. Medelln's
death-penalty appeal pending before the Supreme Court, the White House
announced that it would abide by the World Courts decision by instructing
the states to reconsider the convictions and sentences of the Mexican
nationals on death row. The Supreme Court then dismissed Mr. Medelln's
case to enable the Texas courts to comply with that directive.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to relax its procedural rules
that barred any reconsideration. One of the court's judges, in a
concurring opinion, accused the White House of an "unprecedented,
unnecessary and intrusive exercise of power over the Texas court system"
language that echoed the criticism that the administration had once
directed at Mexico.

Now, however, the administration has entered the case on Mr. Medellns
behalf and urged the Supreme Court to overturn the Texas courts decision.
The case, Medelln v. Texas, No. 06-984, will be argued next fall. The
governments brief, filed by Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, told the
justices that the Texas court's decision, if not reversed, "will place the
United States in breach of its international law obligation" to comply
with the World Court's decision and would "frustrate the president's
judgment that foreign policy interests are best served by giving effect to
that decision."

Mr. Medelln was a gang member in Houston when he was convicted in 1993 of
participating in the gang rape and murder of 2 teenage girls. In urging
the Supreme Court not to hear the case, the Texas solicitor general, R.
Ted Cruz, recounted the crime in vivid detail and said that the Texas
court had applied its usual rules in concluding that Mr. Medelln was
procedurally barred from reopening his case. The president had no
constitutional authority to pre-empt the state's procedural rules, Mr.
Cruz said.

Mexico filed a brief on Mr. Medelln's behalf, noting its desire to provide
"critical resources to aid in the defense of its nationals facing the
death penalty." Mexico noted that last month, the Texas court had denied
relief to 5 other Mexican death-row inmates who are also governed by the
World Court decision. "Bilateral relations between the United States and
Mexico" will "unquestionably" be affected by these cases, Mexico's brief
said.

(source: New York Times)

******************

Perry: Concealed guns should be allowed everywhere----He cites Virginia
Tech shootings; opponents call it 'a terrible idea'


Texans who have concealed-weapon permits should be allowed to carry their
guns anywhere in the state, including churches, courthouses and bars, Gov.
Rick Perry said Monday.

Currently, state law prohibits concealed weapons in certain places,
including private property where signs are posted disallowing the guns.

But after meetings with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael
Leavitt about the rampage at Virginia Tech, Mr. Perry took issue with the
idea of barring weapons from campuses.

"It's time for us to have that debate in Texas from the standpoint of
whether or not a law-abiding citizen in the state of Texas can take their
appropriately licensed and permitted weapon anywhere in this state,
whether it's on a college campus or wherever," Mr. Perry said.

The governor said deranged individuals don't pay any attention to signs
that bar guns on certain premises and that citizens ought "to be able to
protect themselves from that standpoint."

Asked whether such a wide- open weapons policy would include bars and
courthouses, Mr. Perry said: "A person ought to be able to carry their
weapon with them anywhere in the state if they are licensed and they have
gone through the training.

"The idea that you're going to exempt them from a particular place is
nonsense."

With only four weeks left in the legislative session and no proposed bill
that would remove restrictions on where weapons can be taken, it's
unlikely state policy on concealed weapons will change soon.

But the governor signed a bill into law Monday that prohibits law
enforcement from confiscating legally held weapons during emergency
situations. The bill was prompted by reports of police collecting guns
from Katrina victims in New Orleans.

Linda Siemers, president of Texans for Gun Safety, said that as long as
states cannot filter out those with mental illness from having guns, the
existing restrictions should not be lifted.

She pointed out that the killer at Virginia Tech legally bought his guns
despite his history of mental problems.

"Carrying guns to work and to church is a terrible idea," Ms. Siemers
said. "Businesses and nonprofits should make the rules for what happens on
their property."

Especially because of the emotions and anger sometimes sparked in the
workplace, "we feel it would be very irresponsible" to dictate to a
business whether it should allow guns, she said.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, who considers himself a
gun-rights advocate, said the state should continue to limit the places a
person can carry a gun.

"The governor is looking at this issue through the wrong lens," Mr.
Martinez Fischer said.

(source: Dallas Morning News)






FLORIDA:

Lawyers prep jury for arguments for and against the death penalty for Ross


Opening arguments this morning at the start of the penalty phase for the
Blaine Ross murder trial indicated a prosecutor would attempt to show
aggravating circumstances, while defense lawyers would try to establish
Ross' life was worth saving.

The 24-year-old convicted killer faces possible death by lethal injection
if the jury in a Manatee County courtroom recommends it, and Circuit Judge
Edward Nicholas concurs.

The lawyers, in opening arguments, set up a scenario in Courtroom B of
dueling scientists and their theories about Ross' brain.

Defense lawyer Adam Tebrugge said he planned to put on the stand a
psychologist in the next day or two to talk about the effects that drugs
have on the brain. Dr. Frank Wood, of Wake Forest University, is an expert
in schizophrenia and PET scans, Tebrugge said.

One of the first witnesses that Assistant State Attorney Art Brown called
to the stand was Dr. Edward Eikman, a radiologist at the Moffitt Cancer
Center and Research Institute, University of South Florida. Brown said
Eikman would counter the use of PET scans as effective tools in the study
of damaged brains.

Earlier in the morning, Brown told the jury that he planned to show the
aggravating circumstances surrounding the killings, including that Ross
killed his parents on Jan. 7, 2004, for financial gain during the course
of a felony.

In Florida law, proving aggravating circumstances is necessary to proceed
with a request of the jury to return a sentence of death.

On Friday, this same jury found Ross guilty in the murders of his parents,
Richard and Kathleen Ross, at the family's Lionshead home.

Brown told jurors they will hear testimony, including victims' impact
statements from Ross' sister, Kim Sanford, and his uncle, Mike Ross.

"At the conclusion of the penalty phase, I will ask you to recommend that
Ross be sentenced to death for the murders of Richard and Kathleen Ross,"
Brown said.

Defense lawyer Tebrugge, one of three attorneys representing the
defendant, said he plans to give jurors a fuller picture of Ross' life. He
said he will present recollections through family members when Ross was a
teenager.

"There is something here worth saving. Blaine's life still has value to
others, even if he is serving a sentence of life in prison without the
possibility of parole," Tebrugge said.

Tebrugge told the jury Ross had been a heavy drug user for some time.

"Because of some of Blaine's mental health problems, it seems that was a
trigger," Tebrugge said.

The defense said over the next two or three days it plans to call some of
Ross' teachers and corrections officers from when he was in Manatee County
Jail. Also, Ross' closest friends and their parents will be called to the
stand. One of Ross' ex-girlfriends will also be called to testify about
his increasing drug use and the effects it had on him.

(source: Bradenton Heral)






GEORGIA:

Death Penalty Sought in Teen Murders


2 men accused of murdering 2 teenage cousins who were walking home from a
neighborhood store will face the death penalty when their case goes to
trial, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Jeremy Moody, 29, and William Felts, 34, are charged in the April 5 deaths
of 15-year-old Dell Mattox Jr. and 13-year-old Sierra Kimble. The victims'
nude bodies were found behind a school in south Fulton County during their
Spring Break.

More than a dozen relatives wore memorial T-shirts and wept openly during
a court appearance Tuesday by both suspects inside Fulton County Superior
Court.

Both men were shackled and chained in their orange jail jump suits during
the hearing. Moody's court-appointed defense attorney said he is not
surprised that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

"Not from what I've heard so far and what the trend has been, it seems,
with Fulton County. There have been a number of death penalty
prosecutions, while there have not been as many in the past, so I'm not
surprised by that," said Dennis Francis Jr. Francis said he met with Moody
for the first time Monday night.

Police said the suspects are 2 area crack cocaine users who attacked the
teens with a screwdriver, stabbing them to death to steal what ended up
being less than $20.

Moody and Felts were indicted April 20 on charges of 2 counts of murder, 2
counts of felony murder, 2 counts of aggravated assault, 2 counts of
aggravated assault, 2 counts of kidnapping with intent to do bodily injury
and 1 count of rape.

(source: WXIA TV News)

******************

Suspects in teen stabbing deaths to face death penalty


Fulton County prosecutors Tuesday said they would seek the death penalty
for 2 men charged with last month's murders of 2 teenage cousins.

At a late-morning hearing in Fulton Superior Court, defendants Jeremy L.
Moody and William Franklin Felts Jr. sat quietly with their heads down,
occasionally shaking their heads as representatives of Fulton District
Attorney Paul Howard officially served notice of their intentions to seek
the death penalty.

Moody, 29, and Felts, 34, are charged in the stabbing deaths of cousins
Sierra Kimble, 13, and Del Mattox Jr., 15, who disappeared on April 5
while walking to a neighborhood store for snacks. Their bodies were found
the following day near Bethune Elementary School in south Fulton County.

An 11-count indictment returned April 20 charged Moody and Felts with 2
counts of murder, 2 counts of felony murder, 2 counts of aggravated
assault, 2 counts of kidnapping with intent to do bodily injury and 1
count of rape.

While Moody will be represented by the state's capital defender's office,
long-term representation for Felts is still being worked out.

Before Tuesday's hearing, defense attorneys objected to cameras in the
courtroom, arguing that video footage could prejudice jury selection.
Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell granted the motion, keeping cameras out
of Tuesdays hearing.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)




ALABAMA----impending execution

Stay of execution sought for Alabama death row inmate


Attorneys for Alabama death row inmate Darrell Grayson filed a motion
Monday asking to stay his execution based on their concerns that the
state's method of lethal injection causes "excruciating pain."

Lawyers for another death row inmate, Aaron Jones, also filed a motion
Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking to stay his execution, scheduled
for Thursday, at least until Grayson's challenge to lethal injection is
heard.

Grayson, who was convicted in the 1980 rape and killing of an elderly
woman in her Montevallo home, is one of a half-dozen inmates who have
filed lethal injection challenges in the Montgomery federal court.

He is scheduled to be executed on July 26. But U.S. District Judge Keith
Watkins, who was asked to stay the execution in the latest filing, has
indicated a June 26 hearing on the lethal injection challenge is possible
and has given attorneys a timetable to sumbit briefs.

The constitutionality of Alabama's method of execution by lethal injection
has not been decided by the courts.

"The issue of a stay doesn't really come up until after he's had the
trial," Stephen Bright, one of Grayson's attorneys, said Monday. "If we
prove at the trial that the method of execution in Alabama causes
excruciating pain, then the execution will almost certainly be stayed."

Attorneys for Jones, who is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 1978
slayings of a Blount County couple, turned to the Supreme Court on Monday
after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied a similar
stay request from Jones on Friday. The appeals court, noting the murders
occurred more than 28 years ago, said in part that "the surviving victims
have waited long enough for some closure to these heinous crimes."

The State's attorneys had argued that the 54-year-old Jones, who is one of
the longest-serving death row inmates in Alabama, waited too long to
challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Clay Crenshaw, who handles capital appeals for the Alabama attorney
general's office, said the state has until May 14 to respond to Grayson's
stay request and will argue that the filing was "unreasonably delayed."

"The normal appeals for Grayson ended 5 years ago," he said. "In addition,
Grayson has for the last four years litigated a request for DNA testing of
several items. Now he's asking for what amounts to a fifth round of
appeals."

Grayson was 19 when he and co-defendant Victor Kennedy beat and suffocated
86-year-old Annie Laura Orr, whose home was ransacked and burglarized. The
2 admitted they repeatedly raped the victim, and prosecutors used their
statements as aggravating circumstances to get the death penalty. Kennedy
was executed in 1999.

Bright, who is with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights,
said unlike Jones' case, the month between the tentative trial date and
scheduled execution is enough time for his client's case to be heard.

Monday's filing isn't a delay tactic, rather a move to make sure the
execution is constitutional and doesn't cause cruel and unusual
punishment, he said.

(source: Daily Report)




*********************

Judicial override not a fair shake in state capital cases


The Alabama House last week killed a major proposed reform for handling
capital cases. It was disappointing that the House chose to trash the bill
without allowing a full debate. Yet it wasn't particularly surprising.
Although Alabamas system of handling death penalty cases is deeply flawed,
the Legislature is reluctant to change it for fear of appearing soft on
crime.

The argument for imposing a moratorium on the death penalty is to allow a
comprehensive debate. That now seems more compelling than ever.

Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, sponsored the measure that the House
killed. It would end Alabama's much-criticized practice of judicial
override in capital cases by letting a jury -- not a judge -- decide the
ultimate penalty.

Alabama is one of the few states that allow judges to ignore a jury's
recommendation in capital cases. A judge may sentence a convicted murderer
to death even if the jury recommends life without parole.

Newton, noting that Alabama continues to elect its judges, said he
believes circuit judges too often override jury recommendations in
response to political pressure. The judges, like the lawmakers, dont want
to be accused of being "soft on crime."

A critic of Newton's bill, state Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, argued
that judges need the right to override when juries dont follow the law and
make a bad decision on punishment. He said he doesn't know of a single
case in Alabama where an override was used without a good reason.

But according to one study, judicial override is responsible for between
20 % and 25 % of the capital sentences in Alabama.

An assessment team from the American Bar Association cited judicial
override as the leading reason why Alabama, which ranks 23rd in
population, has the sixth-largest death row in the United States. Though
Alabama has only half the population of Georgia, which does not permit
judicial override, it sentences 4 times as many people to death.

That should be an obvious concern. So should other death penalty issues in
Alabama.

One of those issues is the fact that the state does not ensure legal
representation for inmates after their 1st round of appeals. Volunteer
lawyers take up some of the slack, but theyre overwhelmed. Every state
except Alabama ensures that people at risk of execution have lawyers if
they cant afford them.

The quality of lawyers who are appointed to represent poor capital
defendants also has come under criticism.

Other troublesome aspects of the death penalty in Alabama include racial
and geographic disparities in sentencing.

At least 37 local governments in the state have called for a moratorium to
allow careful consideration of the death penalty. But just as they
rejected Newton's proposed reform last week, hardliners in the Legislature
have rejected the moratorium year after year.

The system is patently unfair. The Legislature's intransigence is
unconscionable.

(source: Editorial, Tuscaloosa News)

****************

Diplomacy of death and Alabama's future


John Bruton couldn't have been more diplomatic. Which is fitting since he
is, in fact, a diplomat.

In a visit to Alabama last week, the European Union's ambassador to the
United States went out of his way - too far, some thought - to engage
Alabamians not just in a dialogue about eco-nomic development but about
capital punishment.

He praised the state profusely for its strides in education, its success
in economic development and its efforts to break with the worst of its
past.

"I have been very impressed," he said.

Even his one criticism of Alabama - its fondness for prisons and
executions - he expressed gingerly, thoughtfully, ever mindful that he was
an outsider.

In meeting with Gov. Bob Riley, Bruton made a passing mention that the
European Union opposes the death penalty.

Speaking later to a more receptive audience, Bruton elaborated: Alabama's
"excessive" incarceration and its use of the death penalty, he said,
threaten to stall the state's economic growth.

"If one wants to continue to attract substantial amounts of foreign
investments, one has got to deal with issues like this," Bruton said at
the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents death row inmates. "Because
these issues do impact on the image that people have of Alabama."

He encouraged the group to build on the state's positives - its economy,
its hospitality, its faith - to make the case against the death penalty.

Responses to Bruton's remarks offer a disheartening glimpse of the
hardened views on the other side.

First, there was Riley, who at the end of the day still supports the death
penalty and is not at all worried the state's execution business might one
day kill other business.

Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson said the state's top industrial recruiter,
Neal Wade, can't remember a single time when a company looking at Alabama
expressed concerns about capital punishment.

"We have the death penalty, and we still have record amounts of foreign
investments," Emerson said. "It doesn't appear to have been any kind of
obstacle."

Riley was not the only one unmoved by Bruton's appeal.

When reporter Thomas Spencer's story appeared on al.com, one reader
responded: "To Mr. Bruton of the Effeminate Union, I say, if they're on
death row, `kill 'em all; let God sort 'em out.' One other point, keep
your Eurotrash nose ... out of the United States of America's business."

So much for catching flies with honey.

Interestingly, some of the anti-death-penalty crowd were disappointed by
Bruton, too. They thought he didn't go far enough to force the issue, say,
by pushing Riley to call at least a temporary halt to executions.

"People had hoped for something a little less diplomatic," said Bryan
Stevenson, the director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which hosted a
breakfast for the ambassador.

Bruton argued, for instance, that talk of old-time lynchings should be
avoided, as it sends people on the defensive before a discussion even
starts.

It's a hard suggestion to swallow for those fighting against a system
where racial bias may be more subtle but still plays an obvious role in
who lives and who dies.

The Equal Justice Initiative is trying to reach a wider audience with its
concerns about Alabama's death penalty. But Stevenson can't imagine making
the case about racial bias without acknowledging Alabama's shameful
history of segregation and discrimination.

But if Stevenson and others were frustrated by the ambassador's
tactfulness, they were also pleased a person of his stature specifically
asked for an audience with those working against the death penalty. Bruton
may have come across as a politician, but he said things publicly that few
Alabama politicians dare say even in private.

Namely, the death penalty is wrong.

"What the death penalty says is this person's life no longer has value,"
Bruton said. "My view, from what I have learned, is that every life is
inherently valuable, because every life is created by God."

It's a sermon the European Union doesn't just preach to the United States,
he said, but to all countries with an active death penalty. He named a few
examples - China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, which together with us accounted
for 94 % of the world's executions in 2005.

While the ambassador was careful to say Americans can continue to use the
death penalty if they choose, he also offered a sobering reminder about
who stands with us.

(source: The Birmingham News)






NEBRASKA----impending execution

Moore Moved To State Pen's Death Row----Chambers asks Supreme Court to
stop May 8 execution


Condemned murderer Cary Dean Moore was moved Tuesday to death row at the
state penitentiary where he is scheduled to die in the electric chair May
8.

Last month Moore ordered a halt to appeals aimed at saving his life. His
case included a detailed confession of how he planned the robberies of 2
Omaha cab drivers and fatally shot each of them, although neither had
resisted during the robberies. They were murdered in 1979.

Moore was previously held at the state correctional center in Tecumseh.

In another development:

Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha urged the state Supreme Court to bar
executions until it determines the legality of a new execution procedure
adopted by Department of Correctional Services.

Chambers said the department failed to conduct a mandated public hearing
on the new procedure. Attorney General Jon Bruning earlier said the new
procedure was "not clearly inappropriate," and that he could defend it.
Bruning did not specifically address the issue of the required public
hearing.

In a letter to the state's highest tribunal, Chambers said electric chair
procedures adopted by the department 3 years ago could lead to a condemned
man's body catching fire, with no guarantee that the electricity would
kill him first.

In response to a lower court decision, the department said it would apply
2,450 volts of electricity to the prisoner for 20 consecutive seconds. If
the inmate still had a pulse 15 minutes later, the current would be
applied for another 20 seconds. In 2004 the department had adopted a
system that called for the same procedure, but with the electricity being
applied only 15 seconds.

In previous executions, the department always used at least 2 applications
of electricity, or more.

(source: Nebraska State Paper)