Omaha, Neb. — Gov. Pete Ricketts has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited prison officials from blocking the view of execution witnesses before the condemned inmate is declared dead, signaling that theyre willing to repeat the much-criticized step in a future execution.
The bill was introduced after prison officials closed the witness viewing curtain for 14 minutes during the August 2018 execution of Carey Dean Moore, which prevented members of the media from seeing the full process.
Supporters of the bill said the move prevented the public from knowing whether something went wrong with the execution.
