The Nebraska Supreme Court has denied a lawyer's request to be removed from representing a death row inmate ahead of his execution.
Nebraska's longest serving death row inmate, 60 year old Carey Dean Moore, isn't fighting the state on his August 14th execution, and that doesn't sit well with his lawyer.
Defense attorney Jeff Pickens argued to the state's highest court that his duty to provide competent legal representation conflicts with his obligation to follow the wishes of his client. Pickens says he has a number of options when it comes to stopping the state from executing Moore, but Moore has instructed him not to fight it.
Moore was sentenced to death in 1980 for the shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers in 1979 and has been scheduled execution dates previously. Moore says he has repented for what he did and is ready to die.
Replacing Pickens with another attorney would have likely delayed the execution and one of the key drugs in the state's lethal injection supply, potassium chloride, will expire at the end of the month.