Brent Martin is currently working as the News Director at KFEQ/Eagle Radio St. Joseph and the St. Joseph Post in St. Joseph, Missouri. Previously, he was the news director at the Nebraska Radio Network.
As a journalist, Mr. Martin witnessed 13 executions carried out in Missouri before his position with the Nebraska Radio Network led to his final witnessing experience. Martin's last time serving as a witness to an execution was different from the others for several reasons. Not only was it the only time he witnessed an execution in Nebraska, but it was also the first time that Nebraska had carried out an execution in 20 years. In May 2015, the Nebraska legislature voted 32-15 to repeal the death penalty. Just days after the repeal had taken effect, organizers began a petition campaign to put the issue before voters. Months later, citizens went to the polls in November and more than 60% of Nebraska citizens voted to overturn their Legislature's repeal, thereby keeping the death penalty. Several years later, on August 14, 2015, Carey Dean Moore was executed by the state of Nebraska. It would be the first time that Nebraska would use the mode of lethal injection and it would be the first state to use opioid fentanyl as the drug for the execution.
On May 1, 2023, I met with Brent Martin at KFEQ/Eagle in St. Joseph, Missouri to interview him about his experiences serving as a witness to 13 executions in Missouri and 1 execution in Nebraska. Mr. Martin has written numerous articles about the executions that he has witnessed over the years of his time serving as a media witness. The links below provide a sampling of the articles that he has published about the Nebraska execution that he witnessed in 2018. In the above video clip, Mr. Martin can be seen comparing the executions that he witnessed in Missouri to the final one he would come to serve as a media witness, in Nebraska on Aug. 14, 2018.
"A Monumental Day, as Nebraska Carries Out First Execution by Lethal Injection
Nebraska Uses Opioid Fentanyl in Inmate's Execution
Local View: Five years later, looking back on the execution of Carey Dean Moore