2-15-12, OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An attorney for Nebraska death row inmate Michael Ryan has filed a motion seeking to have his death sentence commuted to life without parole.
    
The motion filed Monday in Richardson County District Court says Nebraska's lethal injection protocol did not exist during Ryan's conviction, sentencing and previous appeals related to the 1985 cult-related murder of two people near Rulo. For that reason, Ryan's motion says, none of the grounds for relief he's seeking in his latest motion could have been raised in previous pleas.
    
Nebraska changed its method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection in 2009.
    
Ryan's execution has been set for March 6. If that date holds, Ryan would be the first person executed in Nebraska since 1997, and the state's first by lethal injection.