When the Nebraska Supreme Court sets an execution date for a death-row inmate, as it did this week for former cult leader Michael Ryan, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services begins preparations as if the date is set in stone.

Often, it is not.

On April 21, the court set a June 14, 2011, execution date for death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore. And although an appeal he filed last year in Douglas County Court has been dismissed, the convicted killer of two Omaha cab drivers remains alive on death row at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

Now, Ryan is scheduled to be executed March 6 at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

Jerry Soucie, an attorney with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy who represents both Ryan and Moore, said last week that additional legal challenges likely will be filed on Ryan's behalf in Richardson County. 

Ryan was convicted of the 1985 torture murder of James Thimm, 26, at a Rulo survivalist camp. According to trial testimony, he broke Thimm's arm, skinned him alive and ordered another cult member to shoot him in the head.

Ryan pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the death of Luke Stice, 5, who also was tortured and died of a skull fracture. Both were buried in shallow, unmarked graves at the compound.

Soucie has contested the state's most recent purchase of sodium thiopental, saying the supply was intended for testing purposes in Zambia rather than to be used as one of three drugs to execute inmates in Nebraska.

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office has argued on behalf of the Corrections Department that the drug was purchased legally.

Corrections spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith said that whatever legal challenges lie ahead, staff must proceed as if Ryan will be executed March 6.

Members of the execution team, which consists of Corrections Director Bob Houston, Nebraska State Penitentiary Warden Diane Sabatka-Rine, an escort team of at least seven and a two-person IV team, must train at least once every six months, according to the state's execution protocol. Once an execution date has been scheduled, the team must train at least once a week.

In the week before an execution, the inmate is brought from Tecumseh to the penitentiary in Lincoln. While staff members test equipment and conduct a final walk-through of execution duties, the death-row inmate is placed on around-the-clock observation, Smith said in an email.

It is part of a process that the Corrections Department plans, and is specific up to the final minutes of a death-row inmate's life, according to Smith.

Twelve hours before execution, the inmate chooses a last meal.

At some point before an execution is to take place, media members are allowed into the prison visiting room.

The inmate's visitors must leave and the inmate is prepared for execution.

The death warrant is read to the inmate, who is allowed to make a final statement.

A preliminary call is made to the attorney general in the event that any last-minute legal challenges result in a stay of execution. Corrections staff remain on the phone with the attorney general until the execution is complete.

Witnesses are taken into a viewing room, and the inmate is strapped to the table.

"The curtains are open, the drugs are administered and the curtain is closed," reads the final instruction.

Then, a coroner pronounces the inmate dead.