While we as a state may have our disagreement about the overall topic of capital punishment, it is the law. There are state laws pertaining to its administration, and Nebraskans expect their elected officials to follow the law.
At some point, though, defending unwarranted secrecy around the death penalty will end – and Nebraskans will no doubt learn the truth.
A federal judge ordered Nebraska must provide documents detailing how it obtained the fentanyl used last August as part of Carey Dean Moore’s execution. This decision came as a victory for Arkansas’ death-row inmates, who were seeking to determine whether fentanyl could be used within their state’s death penalty protocol to prevent them from suffering “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Last week’s ruling, coincidentally, came during Sunshine Week – an annual celebration of transparent government and open records, both of which help hold elected officials accountable.
Nebraska has been neither transparent nor open about Moore’s execution.
Remember that a judge ruled last June that the Journal Star and other entities were correct in their presumption that most records related to the death penalty protocol were public. Again, these documents were determined by a judge to belong to the people of Nebraska – even though the government of Nebraska has instead appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court.
In the interim, the state executed the convicted double murderer. Also in the interim, a Lancaster County judge has ordered the state to pay nearly $60,000 in attorneys fees and court costs because the plaintiffs were ruled to have substantially prevailed in the case.
That’s a lot of money the state paid fighting its losing battle. Coincidentally, that figure falls very close to the nearly $55,000 Nebraska spent in 2015 to obtain sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide from a vendor in India.
One problem: The state never got its execution drugs delivered – or money back – in this high-profile embarrassment.
Four years later, this episode mustn’t be forgotten. Above all else, it underscores the importance of open government. The more information that’s made publicly available by a government, the better the people it serves can ensure it does so effectively and efficiently.
Rather than merely being taken at its word, government must constantly prove that it is earning trust. If it’s being a good steward of tax dollars, it must demonstrate that – and no better way exists to achieve that end than through transparency.
It would be preferable if Nebraska did so voluntarily. However, the state’s resistance is instead requiring expensive litigation to force it to uphold these responsibilities. The recent ruling in the Arkansas case only reiterates the folly of this approach.
The truth will eventually emerge regarding the sourcing of Nebraska’s execution drugs and records. Until then, continued opposition will only delay the inevitable – and ring up additional costs.
Source: Lincoln Journal Star, Editorial Board, March 24, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
