Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 26, 2006 20:25:27 GMT -5
Missouri officials filed an appeal Monday of a federal court order that set an execution standard they have been unable to meet.
Attorney General Jay Nixon took the case to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis, saying U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. erred in imposing a requirement that an anesthesiologist prepare the lethal drug thingytail. The provision could effectively ban executions.
Ruling last month in the case of death row inmate Michael A. Taylor, Gaitan halted Missouri executions over concern that the method could subject the condemned to unconstitutionally cruel pain.
Chief among Gaitan's concerns was that for years a surgeon has had sole discretion to mix lethal injections without written guidelines or trainingin anesthesia. That surgeon, called John Doe I in court records, said in a deposition last month that he was dyslexic and sometimes made mistakes with facts and figures.
Putting so much discretion in the hands of a dyslexic doctor created an unacceptable risk, Gaitan wrote. The judge also said he had grave concerns about the doctor's qualifications.
Corrections officials met Gaitan's July 15 deadline to submit a plan for overhauling procedures. But they said they could not meet a key requirement to put an anesthesiologist in charge of preparing the lethal drug thingytail.
None of 298 anesthesiologists responded to letters from the state asking if they would consider the job, according to officials who then asked for permission to continue using any physician, nurse or emergency medical technician.
Taylor's lawyers filed papers Monday in Gaitan's court, urging him to reject the state's proposal. They said it would leave the door open for John Doe I to continue mixing of the lethal drugs, which they called "completely unacceptable."
Taylor was sentenced to die for the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989.
Death penalty critics say that if the condemned is not properly numbed by the 1st drug administered, paralysis caused by the 2nd could make it impossible to communicate pain that would accompany the 3rd.
(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Attorney General Jay Nixon took the case to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis, saying U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. erred in imposing a requirement that an anesthesiologist prepare the lethal drug thingytail. The provision could effectively ban executions.
Ruling last month in the case of death row inmate Michael A. Taylor, Gaitan halted Missouri executions over concern that the method could subject the condemned to unconstitutionally cruel pain.
Chief among Gaitan's concerns was that for years a surgeon has had sole discretion to mix lethal injections without written guidelines or trainingin anesthesia. That surgeon, called John Doe I in court records, said in a deposition last month that he was dyslexic and sometimes made mistakes with facts and figures.
Putting so much discretion in the hands of a dyslexic doctor created an unacceptable risk, Gaitan wrote. The judge also said he had grave concerns about the doctor's qualifications.
Corrections officials met Gaitan's July 15 deadline to submit a plan for overhauling procedures. But they said they could not meet a key requirement to put an anesthesiologist in charge of preparing the lethal drug thingytail.
None of 298 anesthesiologists responded to letters from the state asking if they would consider the job, according to officials who then asked for permission to continue using any physician, nurse or emergency medical technician.
Taylor's lawyers filed papers Monday in Gaitan's court, urging him to reject the state's proposal. They said it would leave the door open for John Doe I to continue mixing of the lethal drugs, which they called "completely unacceptable."
Taylor was sentenced to die for the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989.
Death penalty critics say that if the condemned is not properly numbed by the 1st drug administered, paralysis caused by the 2nd could make it impossible to communicate pain that would accompany the 3rd.
(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)