In the United States the most recent execution took place just this month on August 14, 2018, in Lincoln, Nebraska. A convicted murderer, Carey Dean Moore, was put to death by a first-time, untested four-drug "cocktail" which included the extremely powerful opioid fentanyl. Many of us have heard about fentanyl because it is plastered all over the news on a regular basis because it has become a real bad drug problem in society, killing many people who never dreamed they wouldn't live to see another day.
Carey Dean Moore was in the Nebraska State Penitentiary for 38 years before his final execution date came. He was Nebraska's longest-serving inmate. He even got fed up with the legal system after a while, and not knowing if there would be another delay he repeated in writing just this month he was guilty and did not want to fight the execution any more in court . Finally, on the day of his execution, it took 23 minutes from the time the first of the four drugs, including fentanyl, were injected into him until the last one before the coroner announced his time of death. His execution was the 1,481 since 1976 in the United States.https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/number-executions-state-and-region-1976 .
What's the big deal about this current event since the death penalty is constitutional? Remember the 5th Amendment we just learned about, specifically the part about "no person shall be....deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law...". His case was carefully overseen by the judge that handled his case. Carey Dean Moore committed a crime, a double murder. He was charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He got his due process, his fair treatment through the judicial system. Now think about the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution which prohibits the federal government from imposing cruel and unusual punishments. The state of Nebraska set a precedent. They were the first to execute a person with an untested four-drug cocktail. They expected he would have been dead within 15 minutes or so. It took 23 minutes. During that time there were required witnesses including a clergy member. Refer to this video that outlines what happened in the execution room. It gives details of how Carey Moore reacted while the drugs were being pumped into him. Some of the details were "...coughed...rapid diaphragm...face turned red....then purple....eyelids opened slightly...". Another detail was "10:24 curtain lifted.....10:30 curtain down...10:53 curtain up again".
There has been questions, but no answers, about the curtain being lifted, put down, and then lifted again.Normally, the curtain is not put down until an executed person is pronounced dead. In this case, the person was not yet pronounced dead. Fourteen unexplained minutes passed from the time the curtain went down at 10:39 and then up again at 10:53 which was 6 minutes after the time he was pronounced dead. This raises questions.
Questions for Discussion:
1) Which Amendment of the Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant the right to a speedy trial?
2) Do you feel Carey Dean Moore was treated fairly?
3) If not, do you feel you could have eventually been spared the death penalty because of it?
4) Do you feel Carey Dean Moore was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when he was given the new four-drug cocktail for his lethal injection and that something did go wrong?
5)Should the state of Nebraska give an explanation to the public about the curtain incident?
6) Will this precedent have a positive, negative, or neither affect on the state of Nebraska?
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I chose this article because I found the topic very interesting since I could relate several Amendments we are learning about to this event.
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