Former prison warden says Nebraska would be better off without death penalty

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/former-prison-warden-says-nebraska-would-be-better-off-without/article_e46eb3d6-8b82-5026-a09a-ba41da0eb417.html

POSTED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014 1:30 AM
By Joe Duggan / World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN — Nebraska officials should prepare for a possible botched execution if they obtain the lethal drugs to carry out the death penalty, says a former Oregon prison warden who opposes capital punishment.

And if a condemned inmate fails to die as planned, some of the prison staff members assigned to the task could need psychological help, said Frank Thompson, who oversaw a pair of executions during the 1990s in Oregon.


Frank Thompson, a former prison warden from Salem, Oregon.


“Oklahoma and Arizona could happen right here in Nebraska and your staff and the general public deserve better,” Thompson said Monday, referring to executions in which witnesses said the condemned experienced prolonged deaths and appeared to have felt pain or struggled to breathe.

Nebraska has 11 inmates on death row but currently lacks a viable death penalty because one of its expired lethal injection drugs has become difficult to replace. Attorney General Jon Bruning recently said he expects it will take about a year before the state could resume executions.

FULL story at link.