The cemetaries of Raleigh, N.C. will have fewer occupants due to the refusal of the N.C. Medical...
Credit: Max O'Well | ©Dr. David S. McKenney
Governor Easley and the Council of State Place Death Penalty on Indefinite Leave
Governor Easley and the Council of State place death penalty on indefinite leave.Raleigh News & Observer staff writer Andrea Weigl announced on the front page that North Carolina Governor Mike Easley and his Council of State have decided that the requirement that a doctor participate in executions to assure that prisoners do not needlessly suffer create a problem that the state legislature needs to address.
The controversy over executions came when the North Carolina Medical Board ruled that it doctors cannot participate in executions. At the same time the legislation defining how executions are to be performed in North Carolina requires a doctor's presence.
The Council of State which is made up the nine senior elected state executives voted six to three for what is in effect a moratorium on executions until the legislature acts.
The vote was bipartisan with three republicans and three democrats voting for the moratorium; and two democrats and one republican voting for continuing executions.
The controversy began in earnest in 2006 when a federal judge allowed an execution to go forward so long as a doctor was tracking an inmate's consciousness on a monitor.
The North Carolina Medical Board stepped in forbidding doctors to anything more than just being present at an execution.
The medical board's decision provided ammunition for defense lawyers to go to court for their clients as the state could not, without a doctor monitoring the execution, guarantee that their client would be fully sedated during the execution.
Prison officials tried to get around the issue by setting up a policy whereby the monitoring would be done by a nurse. A doctor would be present in case of a medical emergency.
This solution, the inmates attorneys pointed out was not sensible. The doctor's oath would mean that if the inmate began to die the doctor would have to intervene. But intervened the inmate would not be executed. If the doctor didn't intervene then the doctor would be guilty of unethical medical behavior.
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The United States, self-proclaimed "last surviving superpower," is the only one of the developed western democracies that has the death penalty... and does not have a national health plan.
Nice reporting on this topic. So many nuances to the death penalty debate....very interesting stuff!
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12/16/2008
Barbara get a life bitch
Barbara
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02/08/2007
A Book Recommendation "Journey Toward Justice" This is the Companion book to The Innocent Man, Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz changed my mind about the Death Penalty. True Crime, Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Journey Toward Justice is a testimony to the Triumph of the human Spirit and is a Memoir. Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder after a swift trail. The only thing that saved him from the Death Penalty was a lone vote from a juror. Dennis Fritz was the other Innocent man mentioned in John Grisham's Book. which mainly is about Ronnie Williamson, Dennis Fritz's co-defendant. Both were exonerated after spending 12 years in prison. The real killer was one of the Prosecution's Key Witness. Read about why he went on a special diet of his while in prison, amazing and shocking. Dennis Fritz's Story of unwarranted prosecution and wrongful conviction needs to be heard. Look for his book in book stores or at Amazon.com , Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fr
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