Troubles on death row should stop executions

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Death-penalty opponents in North Carolina will resume their push for a moratorium when the General Assembly opens its 2007 session on Jan. 24.

Gov. Mike Easley doesn't have to wait. He could order a halt now.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush did exactly that Dec. 15 after a lethal-injection execution took 34 minutes and caused extensive chemical burning on the prisoner's arms.

Since then, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state officials to examine lethal-injection procedures to make sure they comply with court rulings, and a court in Maryland stopped executions there while a legislative panel examines problems.

North Carolina uses the same means of execution. Lawyers for Marcus Reymond Robinson, whose death date has been scheduled for Jan. 26, asked the governor to stop the execution. They cited the recent experience in Florida.

That execution was marred by a faulty insertion of the needle. Lethal chemicals were injected into soft tissue rather than the prisoner's veins.

"When the IV is not in the vein and the fluids are injected under the skin, it can cause a lot of pain," Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and an expert on lethal injection, told The Associated Press. "It would feel like your arms are on fire."

Not everyone would be sympathetic, but many judges are. In North Carolina, state law requires the "presence" of a physician during executions, presumably to guard against medical mistakes. But the law runs afoul of American Medical Association policies, which prohibit physicians from participating in executions. The N.C. Medical Board adopted a proposed position statement endorsing the AMA stance. An attending physician would be subject to disciplinary action by the board if he or she did anything, physically or verbally, to facilitate the execution. The board plans to give final consideration to the policy in early 2007.

North Carolina can continue to risk botched executions like the one in Florida, which could trigger a court finding of cruel and unusual punishment, or it can stop executions. They will be phased out eventually, anyway. In 2006, North Carolina juries sent only four convicted murderers to death row. As recently as 2000, the number was 17. Increasingly, jurors view life in prison without parole as a better alternative.

The medical profession has put up obstacles to capital punishment. The courts are viewing challenges to lethal injection more favorably. Juries usually choose other options. This should create a sense of inevitability among policymakers. Sooner or later, the death penalty will end. Sooner makes more sense.