A couple of major court cases directly impacted by the state's death penalty fight are taking place this week. Lethal injection has been a hot topic across the state after a lengthy battle that saw voters deciding the final outcome.
Thursday, a death penalty hearing will be held for Patrick Schroeder, 40, who is convicted of killing a farmer in 2006 and his cellmate in 2017 at the Tecumseh Prison.
Earlier this week, death row inmate Carey Dean Moore was denied a pardon request when he said the state was too incompetent to execute him.
The ACLU of Nebraska is suing Governor Pete Ricketts, NE Attorney General Doug Peterson, and NE Department of Corrections because, they say, the state developed flawed execution protocol without reviewing it publicly.
Patrick Schroeder told NET's Bill Kelly in a phone interview from prison that he believes in the death penalty.
"That's another reason I won't fight the death penalty because I feel if they give me another life sentence I honestly feel that I will kill again. There's no emotion there," Schroeder explained to Kelly.
The ACLU also says Nebraska obtained the death penalty drugs illegally and they haven't been tested.
In 2008 the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. That's when prison officials switched to lethal injection.
