Staff writer
A Fayetteville man's execution, scheduled for Jan. 26, may be affected by Florida's moratorium on executions, and by a federal ruling in California that declared lethal injection unconstitutional.
Ken Rose, a staff lawyer with the N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation, expects Marcus Robinson's lawyers to use those decisions in their efforts to postpone or stop Robinson's execution.
Robinson was sentenced to death in 1994 for the 1991 shooting death and robbery of 17-year-old Eric Tornblom. His lawyers, Kevin Bradley of Durham and Geoffrey Hosford of Wilmington, could not be reached for comment.
A federal judge in California ruled on Friday that California's lethal injection method violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday halted all executions in that state after it was discovered that executioners botched a lethal injection execution on Wednesday. They injected the poisons into the inmate's muscles instead of his veins, the Associated Press reported, causing the procedure to take longer than normal, require a second dose of the drugs and possibly cause pain. Witnesses said he appeared to be moving for 24 minutes. The entire process took 34 minutes.
When Earl Richmond of Fayetteville was executed in May 2005, the process from execution to declaration of death took about 20 minutes. Richmond appeared to go unconscious less than a minute after the execution started and appeared to stop breathing in less than two minutes.
North Carolina's method of execution is essentially the same as the methods used in California and Florida, Rose said. North Carolina has federal lawsuits — similar to the one in California — that claim lethal injection causes the condemned person extreme pain that witnesses can't see.
The process injects three drugs:
- First, sodium pentathol, a barbiturate, is injected to quickly put the inmate to sleep.
- Then pancuronium bromide, also called Pavulon, is administered to paralyze the inmate.
- Finally potassium chloride is injected to stop the heart.
The lawsuits fighting the method claim that the sodium pentathol wears off too quickly, allowing the inmate to wake up in the middle of the process. When he wakes up, he's paralyzed by the pancuronium bromide. This leaves him conscious but unable to move when the potassium chloride is injected — potassium chloride is said to cause a burning sensation as it spreads through the body.
A lawsuit also claimed that the potassium chloride dosage is too small to stop the heart, so the inmate suffocates instead.
State Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree said late on Friday the prison system's lawyers will examine the California ruling and Florida moratorium to see whether they have an immediate effect on executions here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment