Post by Anja on Jul 15, 2006 11:39:30 GMT -5
Missouri Says It Can’t Hire Doctor for Executions
By MONICA DAVEY
The State of Missouri, facing a deadline today for changing the way it executes condemned prisoners by lethal injection, told a federal judge last night that it was simply unable to meet his demand that the state hire a board-certified anesthesiologist to oversee executions.
The judge, Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, had demanded an overhaul of the system after the doctor who now mixes the drugs for the state described an improvised process that Judge Gaitan found so chilling that he temporarily barred executions in Missouri.
A United States Supreme Court ruling last month made it easier for death row inmates to challenge procedures used in lethal injection, and legal cases across the country are questioning whether the methods cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.
With state officials’ response last night outlining changes to their procedures, Missouri has moved to the center of the charged debate over the technique, which is used in executions in 37 states.
In a sworn deposition, the Missouri doctor, whose name is being withheld by the state, acknowledged that he had sometimes given the condemned a smaller dose of anesthesia — used to reduce the pain of the lethal drugs to come — than the state had said was its policy.
The doctor said he was solely responsible for counting out dosage amounts of the three drugs administered in sequence, knew of no written protocol by the state for carrying out executions and was at times “improvising.”
He also said he is dyslexic, sometimes mixing up phone numbers or cable bill account numbers. “So it’s not unusual for me to make mistakes,” the doctor, identified in court records as John Doe I, said.
He indicated in his testimony, however, that he had made no mistakes in his death chamber work and that the mistakes elsewhere were “not medically crucial.”
Judge Gaitan said he was “gravely concerned” about the doctor’s dyslexia and criticized the lack of “checks and balances,” ruling on June 26 that the state was subjecting the condemned to “an unnecessary risk that they will be subject to unconstitutional pain and suffering when the lethal injection drugs are administered.”
The judge ordered Missouri to hire a board-certified anesthesiologist (John Doe I is a surgeon), and gave the state until today to submit a formal, written set of procedures, including increased monitoring of inmates and an assurance of sufficient anesthetic drugs.
But in the state’s filing last night, officials said they had sent letters to 298 certified anesthesiologists who reside anywhere near the state’s death chamber in Bonne Terre, and were turned down by all of them.
“A requirement of using a board-certified anesthesiologist is a requirement that cannot presently be met,” Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon wrote. “To enforce it may effectively bar implementation of the death penalty in Missouri. Surely that is not what the court intended.”
It was uncertain whether the judge, who could not be reached late last night, would accept the state’s alternative: Missouri officials said they would instead use “medical personnel in roles appropriate,” like a physician, nurse or pharmacist preparing the drugs.
It was unclear from the filing whether the state intended to retain John Doe I. The American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Medical Association say physicians should not take part in executions, and Orin F. Guidry, the president of the A.S.A., recently issued a letter to members reiterating that position in light of the Missouri ruling.
Missouri has executed 66 people by lethal injection since 1989. The doctor said in the deposition that he had assisted for about a decade.
Around the nation, lawyers and advocates on all sides of the debate said they were closely watching developments in Missouri. Judge Gaitan’s ruling was the most specific and sweeping regarding procedures in any state, they said.
In April, a federal judge permitted an execution in North Carolina without an anesthesiologist, saying the state could use a brain wave monitor to ensure that the prisoner would be unconscious and unable to feel pain.
“This issue is being challenged in all states, but it’s reaching a boiling point in some states and Missouri may be on the cutting edge,” said Richard C. Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group that opposes capital punishment.
In Arkansas, a federal judge delayed an execution that had been set for July 5 to allow time to review that state’s lethal injection procedures and chemical combinations.
In Ohio, corrections officials presented Gov. Bob Taft with changes to the state’s procedures, after Joseph L. Clark’s execution this year, when workers struggled for 90 minutes to find a suitable vein for the lethal drugs, and in preparation for another execution, the first in the country since the Supreme Court ruling. The new procedures were used Wednesday for the first time on another man, Rocky Barton, and corrections officials there said the execution took place “without complications.”
In January, on the eve of the scheduled execution of Michael A. Taylor, a Missouri man who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder and rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1989, Judge Gaitan had ruled that the state’s method of execution did not constitute cruel or unusual punishment. That execution was later halted by an appeals court, which remanded it to Judge Gaitan for further hearings.
Like most states that use lethal injection, Missouri requires three drugs in a row: Sodium pentothal, the anesthetic, is administered, followed by pancuronium bromide, which, as a paralytic, prevents movements of the body, and then potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
If a person has not received sufficient amounts of the anesthetic, the final drug is likely to be deeply painful, medical experts say, but the paralytic agent may prevent the person from revealing that pain.
Initially, Missouri Department of Corrections officials testified that the condemned consistently receive five grams of the anesthetic. But state logs of the most recent six executions revealed that only 2.5 grams had been prepared and used in at least one recent execution.
In his deposition, the doctor, John Doe I, defended the use of less than five grams, emphasizing that nearly all people would be fully anesthetized at a far smaller dose and that most other states use only two grams. In addition, the doctor said, he was able to determine whether the anesthesia had taken effect by looking at the inmate’s facial expression.
But Judge Gaitan, who viewed a videotape of the execution chamber, questioned whether the doctor could see the inmate’s face at all. On the gurney, the inmate faces away from the darkened room where the doctor is observing through a partly closed window, the judge wrote.
In its new policy, submitted last night, Missouri officials said that it would always, in the future, use at least five grams of anesthetic, and have on hand an additional five grams. They also said that a medical worker — a physician, a nurse or a pharmacist, for example — would be positioned to see (either directly or with a mirror) the inmate to be sure he or she was unconscious. And they said that all those involved in an execution would sign an official chemical log to track exactly what happened in each death.
In recent weeks, Department of Corrections officials defended the state’s record of executions and said that John Doe I, whose name they would not reveal citing concerns for his security, had received high marks for his work.
“The process worked, we think, very professionally and humanely,” said Brian Hauswirth, a spokesman for the department.
In his deposition, John Doe I also defended his actions, suggesting he was able to perform his job properly.
“But I am dyslexic, and that is the reason why there are inconsistencies in my testimony,” he said. “That’s why there are inconsistencies in what I call drugs. I can make these mistakes, but it’s not medically crucial in the type of work I do as a surgeon.”
Still, Mr. Hauswirth said that corrections officials had been unaware that John Doe I was dyslexic or that he had changed dosage amounts for the condemned.
Though Mr. Taylor’s scheduled execution was delayed because of legal challenges, the drugs had already been mixed for him. State logs showed they included only 2.5 grams of the anesthetic drug — half of what Missouri officials had said was their policy and now say they will always use.
Linda Taylor, the inmate’s mother, who sat at the execution facility all of that day, said she was sickened when she learned that.
“We don’t want to lose our son, period,” Ms. Taylor said. “But the fact that the drugs may not be mixed right or that he might be in a lot of pain is too much. I keep wondering about all the guys who have been executed who might have been laying there in pain and couldn’t tell anybody.”
Robert Blecker, a professor at New York Law School who supports the death penalty in certain instances, said the constitutional questions being raised about lethal injection were an effort by those opposed to capital punishment to “prevent it, delay it, diminish it.”
For those whose cases warrant the death penalty, he said, the notion that no pain should be involved in an execution makes no sense.
“We’re giving them a death that we could only wish for,” Professor Blecker said. “I don’t get it.”
By MONICA DAVEY
The State of Missouri, facing a deadline today for changing the way it executes condemned prisoners by lethal injection, told a federal judge last night that it was simply unable to meet his demand that the state hire a board-certified anesthesiologist to oversee executions.
The judge, Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, had demanded an overhaul of the system after the doctor who now mixes the drugs for the state described an improvised process that Judge Gaitan found so chilling that he temporarily barred executions in Missouri.
A United States Supreme Court ruling last month made it easier for death row inmates to challenge procedures used in lethal injection, and legal cases across the country are questioning whether the methods cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.
With state officials’ response last night outlining changes to their procedures, Missouri has moved to the center of the charged debate over the technique, which is used in executions in 37 states.
In a sworn deposition, the Missouri doctor, whose name is being withheld by the state, acknowledged that he had sometimes given the condemned a smaller dose of anesthesia — used to reduce the pain of the lethal drugs to come — than the state had said was its policy.
The doctor said he was solely responsible for counting out dosage amounts of the three drugs administered in sequence, knew of no written protocol by the state for carrying out executions and was at times “improvising.”
He also said he is dyslexic, sometimes mixing up phone numbers or cable bill account numbers. “So it’s not unusual for me to make mistakes,” the doctor, identified in court records as John Doe I, said.
He indicated in his testimony, however, that he had made no mistakes in his death chamber work and that the mistakes elsewhere were “not medically crucial.”
Judge Gaitan said he was “gravely concerned” about the doctor’s dyslexia and criticized the lack of “checks and balances,” ruling on June 26 that the state was subjecting the condemned to “an unnecessary risk that they will be subject to unconstitutional pain and suffering when the lethal injection drugs are administered.”
The judge ordered Missouri to hire a board-certified anesthesiologist (John Doe I is a surgeon), and gave the state until today to submit a formal, written set of procedures, including increased monitoring of inmates and an assurance of sufficient anesthetic drugs.
But in the state’s filing last night, officials said they had sent letters to 298 certified anesthesiologists who reside anywhere near the state’s death chamber in Bonne Terre, and were turned down by all of them.
“A requirement of using a board-certified anesthesiologist is a requirement that cannot presently be met,” Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon wrote. “To enforce it may effectively bar implementation of the death penalty in Missouri. Surely that is not what the court intended.”
It was uncertain whether the judge, who could not be reached late last night, would accept the state’s alternative: Missouri officials said they would instead use “medical personnel in roles appropriate,” like a physician, nurse or pharmacist preparing the drugs.
It was unclear from the filing whether the state intended to retain John Doe I. The American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Medical Association say physicians should not take part in executions, and Orin F. Guidry, the president of the A.S.A., recently issued a letter to members reiterating that position in light of the Missouri ruling.
Missouri has executed 66 people by lethal injection since 1989. The doctor said in the deposition that he had assisted for about a decade.
Around the nation, lawyers and advocates on all sides of the debate said they were closely watching developments in Missouri. Judge Gaitan’s ruling was the most specific and sweeping regarding procedures in any state, they said.
In April, a federal judge permitted an execution in North Carolina without an anesthesiologist, saying the state could use a brain wave monitor to ensure that the prisoner would be unconscious and unable to feel pain.
“This issue is being challenged in all states, but it’s reaching a boiling point in some states and Missouri may be on the cutting edge,” said Richard C. Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group that opposes capital punishment.
In Arkansas, a federal judge delayed an execution that had been set for July 5 to allow time to review that state’s lethal injection procedures and chemical combinations.
In Ohio, corrections officials presented Gov. Bob Taft with changes to the state’s procedures, after Joseph L. Clark’s execution this year, when workers struggled for 90 minutes to find a suitable vein for the lethal drugs, and in preparation for another execution, the first in the country since the Supreme Court ruling. The new procedures were used Wednesday for the first time on another man, Rocky Barton, and corrections officials there said the execution took place “without complications.”
In January, on the eve of the scheduled execution of Michael A. Taylor, a Missouri man who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder and rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1989, Judge Gaitan had ruled that the state’s method of execution did not constitute cruel or unusual punishment. That execution was later halted by an appeals court, which remanded it to Judge Gaitan for further hearings.
Like most states that use lethal injection, Missouri requires three drugs in a row: Sodium pentothal, the anesthetic, is administered, followed by pancuronium bromide, which, as a paralytic, prevents movements of the body, and then potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
If a person has not received sufficient amounts of the anesthetic, the final drug is likely to be deeply painful, medical experts say, but the paralytic agent may prevent the person from revealing that pain.
Initially, Missouri Department of Corrections officials testified that the condemned consistently receive five grams of the anesthetic. But state logs of the most recent six executions revealed that only 2.5 grams had been prepared and used in at least one recent execution.
In his deposition, the doctor, John Doe I, defended the use of less than five grams, emphasizing that nearly all people would be fully anesthetized at a far smaller dose and that most other states use only two grams. In addition, the doctor said, he was able to determine whether the anesthesia had taken effect by looking at the inmate’s facial expression.
But Judge Gaitan, who viewed a videotape of the execution chamber, questioned whether the doctor could see the inmate’s face at all. On the gurney, the inmate faces away from the darkened room where the doctor is observing through a partly closed window, the judge wrote.
In its new policy, submitted last night, Missouri officials said that it would always, in the future, use at least five grams of anesthetic, and have on hand an additional five grams. They also said that a medical worker — a physician, a nurse or a pharmacist, for example — would be positioned to see (either directly or with a mirror) the inmate to be sure he or she was unconscious. And they said that all those involved in an execution would sign an official chemical log to track exactly what happened in each death.
In recent weeks, Department of Corrections officials defended the state’s record of executions and said that John Doe I, whose name they would not reveal citing concerns for his security, had received high marks for his work.
“The process worked, we think, very professionally and humanely,” said Brian Hauswirth, a spokesman for the department.
In his deposition, John Doe I also defended his actions, suggesting he was able to perform his job properly.
“But I am dyslexic, and that is the reason why there are inconsistencies in my testimony,” he said. “That’s why there are inconsistencies in what I call drugs. I can make these mistakes, but it’s not medically crucial in the type of work I do as a surgeon.”
Still, Mr. Hauswirth said that corrections officials had been unaware that John Doe I was dyslexic or that he had changed dosage amounts for the condemned.
Though Mr. Taylor’s scheduled execution was delayed because of legal challenges, the drugs had already been mixed for him. State logs showed they included only 2.5 grams of the anesthetic drug — half of what Missouri officials had said was their policy and now say they will always use.
Linda Taylor, the inmate’s mother, who sat at the execution facility all of that day, said she was sickened when she learned that.
“We don’t want to lose our son, period,” Ms. Taylor said. “But the fact that the drugs may not be mixed right or that he might be in a lot of pain is too much. I keep wondering about all the guys who have been executed who might have been laying there in pain and couldn’t tell anybody.”
Robert Blecker, a professor at New York Law School who supports the death penalty in certain instances, said the constitutional questions being raised about lethal injection were an effort by those opposed to capital punishment to “prevent it, delay it, diminish it.”
For those whose cases warrant the death penalty, he said, the notion that no pain should be involved in an execution makes no sense.
“We’re giving them a death that we could only wish for,” Professor Blecker said. “I don’t get it.”
