LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska Attorney General’s office has asked the state Supreme Court to reject a request by death row inmate Michael Ryan to put his upcoming execution on hold.
Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown filed his request Tuesday.
Ryan was sentenced to death for the 1985 cult-related murder of a man and child near Rulo. His motion says Nebraska’s lethal injection protocol did not exist during his conviction, sentencing and previous appeals. For that reason, he says, none of the grounds for relief he’s seeking could have been raised in previous pleas.
Brown argues that the Nebraska Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the mode of execution is separate from the procedures a trial court uses to sentence a defendant.