Victim’s son-in-law prepares to witness execution

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By ERIC OLSON / The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — David Renken says he always has been a proponent of the death penalty, and he believes he still will be after witnessing next month’s scheduled execution of Carey Dean Moore.

Renken’s wife, Lori, is the daughter of Maynard D. Helgeland, who, along with fellow Omaha cab driver Reuel Eugene Van Ness, was murdered by Moore during two robberies in 1979.

Lori and her brothers, Steve and Kenny Helgeland, asked Renken to represent them as victim witness to Moore’s execution May 8.

The state gives victims’ families the option of having a representative at the execution, Department of Correctional Services spokesman Steve King said. No one from Van Ness’ family was on the witness list, King said.

David Renken, a 37-year-old UPS driver from Mount Vernon, S.D., said he does not relish the thought of watching a man die.

“I believe I owe it to the memory of Maynard and the six grandkids he never got to see,” Renken said. “I’ll witness justice being served.”

Moore said in a court filing last month that he was ending all efforts to contest his death sentence, clearing the way for Nebraska’s first execution since Robert Williams was electrocuted in 1997.

Since then, the closest anyone has come to the electric chair was Randolph Reeves, whose death warrant was withdrawn by the state Supreme Court in May 2000, just 40 hours before his scheduled execution. The judges ruled that their predecessors had erred in 1999 when they resentenced him to death. Reeves is now serving a life sentence.

Preparations for Moore’s execution are under way at the penitentiary in Lincoln, King said.

“There is an inevitability there,” King said. “But nobody stands by and waits for the execution process to begin. It always catches everybody by surprise.”

State corrections officials last week began assembling a list of six official witnesses. Renken will be joined by representatives of The Associated Press, the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal Star, Omaha television station KETV and Grand Island radio station KRGI.

Moore’s decision to give up his decades-long fight followed a court blow he suffered in January. The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Moore, who had argued that execution by the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The order left Nebraska as the only state with electrocution as its only means of execution.

A federal court in 1994 vacated Moore’s death sentence, ruling that a portion of the state death penalty law used to sentence him was unconstitutionally vague. A three-judge panel resentenced Moore to death in 1995.

If executed, Moore would be one of four people — Williams, Harold Otey and John Joubert are the others — who have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.

Moore’s attorney, Alan Peterson of Lincoln, has said his client has the option of asking the state Pardons Board to commute the death sentence.

Nebraska in 1913 began using electrocution for executions. The electric chair has been used 15 times in the state.

Electrocution once was used in 26 states. Now only four states have electric chairs, with lethal injection also an option in three states other than Nebraska. The electric chair was used in four of 374 executions nationally from 2001 to 2006.

David Renken is a lifelong resident of South Dakota, where the death penalty is an option but hasn’t been used since 1947.

“I’m a proponent of the death penalty and have been since I was a young man,” he said. “When it comes to watching this, it will really test me. But I know this is the right thing.”

David and Lori Renken have been married 16 years. Lori, 47, was 19 when her father was killed.

A family meeting was called two weeks ago, after the state Supreme Court set the execution date. Renken said Lori and her brothers discussed whether one of them would witness the execution. All three balked, and David Renken was asked to watch Moore die.

“My wife has said she doesn’t harbor hatred for him anymore,” Renken said. “It should have happened a long time ago. What we heard from the assistant warden is that it seems certain it’s going to happen. They want closure to this.”

Renken said he was uncertain how he will mentally prepare for what he’ll see in the death chamber. He might consult with a clergyman. He said he would draw strength from knowing that he’s witnessing the execution on behalf of three siblings whose father was taken away from them.

“If Mr. Moore lived out his life in prison, it wouldn’t be much of an existence for him, but he would still get to be in contact with his family through phone calls and letters,” Renken said. “Maynard doesn’t get to have that.”