27 August 2018 :
Carey Dean Moore execution: Mystery 14 minutes behind the curtain. The execution of Carey Dean Moore will be remembered for what wasn’t seen - 14 minutes while the curtains were drawn. Strapped to the death gurney, Moore desperately heaved in oxygen, coughed, went red in the face and hands, then purple before his executioners pulled the curtain. The change in protocol happened when in the Nebraska State Penitentiary's death chamber, the prisoner appeared to open his eyes slightly. A minute later the curtain was inexplicably closed. He eventually succumbed to the experimental new cocktail of drugs devised to kill him with that curtain drawn. It remained closed for 14 minutes in total, not opening again until 6 minutes after death was pronounced. Nebraska's 1st execution in 2 decades was already controversial for its new 4 drug combination. It was the 1st time the opioid fentanyl had been used in a lethal injection. But the missing 14 minutes, shrouding from registered observers, is proving a bombshell for prison authorities. What went on? Corrections director Scott Frakes was in the room with Moore when he went purple, and said something into his radio before the curtains were closed on witnesses, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Nebraska Radio Network reporter Brent Martin was watching Moore's execution. He said he had watched 13 executions in neighbouring Missouri and had never seen the curtain drawn until the inmate was declared dead. Moore was administered a fatal 4-drug cocktail. First up at 10.24am 37cc of diazepam (Valium) to slow cognition and voluntary muscle movement, followed by 46cc of the powerful opioid fentanyl at 10.30am. According to witnesses, when Moore was given the fentanyl, he appeared to cough and his diaphragm and abdomen moved rapidly up and down with heaving breaths. At 10.31am his chest stopped moving and he went still. At 10.32am, he was administered 15cc of the paralytic cisatracurium besylate, followed by 120cc of potassium chloride - meant to stop his heart - at 10.33am. Moore's face gradually turned red, as did his hands, and then his face turned purple. The Lincoln Journal Star asked pharmacist Ally Dering-Anderson - who had no connection to the execution - what the visible symptoms meant. Ms Dering-Anderson said at the time he was coughing, the killer was probably gasping with difficulty to breathe, as his brain realised it wasn't getting enough oxygen. Reddening could be caused by tiny blood vessels widening. When they started transmitting blood that looked blue due to inadequate amounts of oxygen, it could appear purple. What went on thereafter with the curtain closed may never be confirmed, although the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services did reveal the state coroner spent 4 minutes examining Moore. He was pronounced dead at 10.47am.
