Is There A Doctor In The House?

North Carolina Department of Corrections has a problem.
It's own state medical board has threatened to discipline
any doctor that participates in an execution. State law says
that a doctor must be present at executions. I think this is
a wonderful turn of events if your against capital punishment.
But check out the article below because it get better.



In an unusual development, the North Carolina Department of Corrections sued the state's medical board Tuesday, asserting that the board's threat to discipline doctors participating in executions had prevented the state from getting a physician to be present at lethal-injection executions. The suit was filed in Raleigh the same day that Superior Court Judge Donald W. Stephens called off an imminent execution after state officials informed him they had been unable to obtain the services of a doctor, as required by state law.Inmate Allen R. Holman, 47, was scheduled to die Friday in the execution chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh.

He was convicted of killing his wife in 1997.Legal experts said the suit marked the first time a state agency had sued a medical association stemming from the controversy over doctor involvement in capital punishment.North Carolina law requires that a doctor be present at executions. However, the state medical board said in January that although a doctor could be present, any other participation in the process violated its ethics policy. Last month state officials adopted procedures mandating that a physician monitor an inmate's vital signs and gave doctors the responsibility of halting an execution if the inmate appeared to be suffering excessively.

North Carolina, like California and 35 other states, uses a three-drug combination to execute inmates, who are strapped to a gurney. Lawyers for condemned inmates around the country have asserted in lawsuits that lethal-injection procedures violate the constitutional bar on cruel and unusual punishment.Executions have in effect been halted in 11 states as a result of lethal-injection challenges.Last April a federal judge in Raleigh initially blocked an execution but allowed it to proceed after prison officials agreed to use a machine to monitor an inmate's level of consciousness. Judge Malcolm J. Howard said the execution could proceed if medical personnel were present to ensure that the inmate was unconscious before the lethal injection was administered.




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