High court in Neb. halts electrocution

The Nebraska Supreme Court stayed an execution Wednesday over concerns about a new electrocution protocol in the only state that relies solely on the electric chair for capital punishment.

Carey Dean Moore had been scheduled to die Tuesday for the 1979 murders of two Omaha cab drivers. The high court issued the stay after receiving a request for review of the protocol from state Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.

State Supreme Court Judge John Gerrard wrote that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions “at least raised the question whether electrocution is constitutional.”

“Our constitutional responsibility to decide whether electrocution is lawful requires us to consider whether any convicted person should be electrocuted before that question is answered,” Gerrard wrote of the new protocol.

The state decided to use one 20-second, 2,450-volt jolt instead of several shorter ones of varying voltage after a judge rejected the old practice. Supporters and opponents of the new method agree it might not be effective.

Under the new protocol, officials would wait 18 minutes and then administer a second jolt if the heart was still beating.