By Andrea Weigl
News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Copyright 2007 News & Observer
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
RALEIGH, N.C. — Lawyers for two death row inmates scheduled to be executed soon will ask a Wake Superior Court judge today to halt executions and hold hearings to determine whether the state’s method of lethal injection is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed late Monday by lawyers for Marcus Robinson, who is scheduled to die Friday, and James Thomas, whose execution is set for Feb. 2. The lawsuit names Theodis Beck, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Correction, Warden Marvin Polk, an unnamed physician and executioners as the defendants. A hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. today at the Wake courthouse.
The inmates’ lawyers have raised concerns that the three-drug protocol used to execute inmates leave them awake but paralyzed and unable to express pain. The lawyers argue the state’s method fails to provide an anesthesiologist, who could ensure the inmate is adequately sedated before the fatal drugs are injected.
State law requires that a doctor be present at executions, but last week, the N.C. Medical Board passed a policy forbidding doctors to do anything other than be present.
A prison spokesman declined to comment about the litigation. However, Polk, the warden of Central Prison, where death row is located, filed an affidavit this week as part of a separate lawsuit in federal court that challenges the state’s method of lethal injection. Polk stated in his affidavit that a physician, a nurse and a paramedic are present in an observation room next to the execution chamber. The nurse watches a brain wave monitor to ensure the inmate is adequately sedated and the paramedic observes a heart monitor. The doctor is merely present, Polk wrote.
Noting the medical board’s new policy, Polk said if anything goes wrong during an execution, he can halt the procedure and ask the doctor to intervene. The execution could then be rescheduled.
Also Tuesday, 30 state legislators sent a letter asking Gov. Mike Easley to halt executions, citing a similar move by Florida Gov. Jeb. Bush last year and moratoriums in eight other states. They also announced plans to introduce a bill to establish a legislative study commission to evaluate the state’s method of lethal injection.