LINCOLN -- Maynard Helgeland turned to driving a taxicab because he could do the job with two prosthetic legs.
He had lost his legs as a result of an alcohol addiction that also cost him his marriage and damaged relationships with his three children
But by Aug. 27, 1979, Helgeland had gotten sober and was working to reconnect with his children until he was shot in the head after picking up a fare.
That fare, Carey Dean Moore, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for killing Helgeland and a second cabdriver five days earlier.* * *Reuel Van Ness enjoyed the time he spent taking people around Omaha in his taxicab.He drove the cab to supplement his other jobs. The money came in handy to help support his family of 10 children and stepchildren.
But the job cost Van Ness his life on Aug. 22, 1979, when a fare shot him three times and stole $140.
Mr. Helgeland and Mr. Van Ness were both veterans of the Korean War. Moore was finally executed today.
The headlines are all about the use of fentanyl and the resumption of executions after a long hiatus, but I think it is good to remember the victims first.
[Moore] is the first inmate executed using the drug fentanyl, a powerful narcotic painkiller that has contributed to the nation's epidemic of drug overdoses. He was put to death despite two federal lawsuits filed last week by drug companies seeking to keep their products from being used.
The state's last execution before Tuesday took place in 1997, when the electric chair was the method. Lethal injection was adopted in 2009 after the state Supreme Court outlawed electrocution as cruel and unusual punishment.
Four media witnesses including an Associated Press reporter saw Carey Dean Moore taking short, gasping breaths Tuesday after the lethal injections started.
His breaths then became deeper and more labored. His chest heaved several times before it went still. Over the course of several minutes, his face turned a slight shade of red and then purple. His eyelids briefly cracked open.
That does not seem out of the ordinary. Color change is the result of oxygen not flowing to the face, which of course stopping the heart will do.
This shows that the Governor and Attorney General have to be "on board" for a state to have executions. The voters initiative was important as well. Anything less like California and several others will result into inmates sitting on death row for years.
I wonder what Justice Breyer would say about this?
The thing that amazes me--how this is even entertained? Even if there was some repetitional harm, that doesn't pass the so what test.
Given that Tennessee and Nebraska have finally been able to move forward with executions, is California getting anywhere closer to having a functioning execution chamber?
We are nearly two years since CA voters said they wanted a faster and more functional death penalty system, but from far away it is hard to tell if anything has changed. Has anything really changed since the vote in 2016? Is there even a chance for an execution in 2018? In 2019 or 2020?
(Of course, given that the feds seem also to be in perpetual execution limbo despite election of a pro-DP Prez, perhaps I should just conclude the abolitionist minority has amazing powers to thwart the will of the people everywhere.)
California could be setting dates this year if the Attorney General had appealed the district court's clearly erroneous stay last October when I asked him to.
The district attorneys who sought to intervene in order to get review of the stay have filed an appeal.
So when are dates likely?
That depends on when higher courts vacate the illegal stay. There are too many variables to make a prediction.