20 November 2017 :

Nebraska's attorney general has chosen Jose Sandoval as the next condemned prisoner to die, after a 20-year hiatus in executions in this state, and a year after Nebraska voters brought the death penalty back. No request to the Nebraska Supreme Court for an execution warrant has been made, but Corrections Director Scott Frakes explained Nebraska's new execution protocol in a letter to Sandoval, listing the 4 drugs that will be used to kill him. That combination of drugs chosen has never been used in an execution. Sandoval is on death row for murdering 3 people in a 2002 bank robbery. The process starts with diazepam, an anti-anxiety drug. "It causes the body, in large amounts, to go into respiratory depression and shuts down the respiration of the body," said pharmacist Jim Quinley. The 2nd drug used is fentanyl citrate and the 3rd is cisatracurium besylate, which Quinley said is a skeletal muscle relaxant. "In large quantities it would shut down your skeletal structure, all your muscles and you can't move," Quinley said. "Including your respiratory muscles." The final drug in the list of 4 to be used for executions is potassium chloride. "Potassium chloride is a natural mineral that the body needs, but in large amounts it will put the heart, the cardiac system in afib and cause the heart to stop," Quinley said. Quinley said the 4 drugs are legal, prescription drugs. "In smaller doses they're used for therapeutic reasons," Quinley said. "In larger doses they can kill." Gov. Pete Ricketts said Nebraska bought the drugs in the U.S., but would not specify where in compliance with state law. As for the Sandoval case, the attorney general's office must wait 60 days to request an execution warrant from the Nebraska Supreme Court. That must happen before a date for Sandoval's execution is set.