Via Sentencing Law and Policy:

The capital drama in Tennessee (background here and here) took another turn this morning as the Sixth Circuit in Alley v. Little, No. 06-5650 (6th Cir. May 16, 2006) (available here) refused to reconsider its decision to lift a district court stay based on a lethal injection claim. Five of the 12 voting judges dissented in a potent and brief opinion authored by Judge Martin. Here are portions of Judge Martin's dissent:....

Lethal injection litigation also led to a stay of execution in Texas.

by TChris

Joseph Clark was strapped to a gurney in an Ohio prison yesterday, waiting to die. Technicians spent 22 minutes searching for a suitable vein in which to inject the chemicals that would end his life. After the drugs finally started to flow, Clark grew impatient. After a few minutes, he "was able to raise his head off the gurney and said, 'It's not working.' " The vein had collapsed, forcing technicians to spend more than half an hour looking for another vein.

It seems evident that Clark's death was cruel and unusual. Whether or not he felt physical pain, he was subjected to emotional torture as the minutes dragged by. This is the latest proof that death by lethal injection, far from being a humane alternative to other methods of execution, is barbaric. TalkLeft's recent coverage of the controversy surrounding lethal injection can be found here, here, here and here.

As courts consider whether execution by lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment due to pain caused by the chemicals used, Human Rights Watch has released a 65 page report on the practice, titled So Long as They Die. (Text of report is here, html.)

The report focuses on 12 executions where it appeared the inmate suffered pain. Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a professor of anesthesiology at the U. Mass Medical Center told HRW there is a better way -- a single dose of pentobarbitol. The downside, he said, is it could take up to a half-hour for the heart to stop. As to why not a single state has made the switch, Dershwitz said:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports that judges are becoming increasingly skeptical over the lethal injection cocktail used in executions and are imposing more hurdles, some of which may be impossible to overcome.

Their decisions are based on new evidence suggesting that prisoners have endured agonizing executions. In response, judges are insisting that doctors take an active role in supervising executions, even though the American Medical Association's code of ethics prohibits that.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in one case this month. Human Rights Watch will issue a new report on the drugs used this month. What's changed?

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel spent more than 3 1/2 hours at the prison, accompanied by lawyers for the state and for Michael Morales, the condemned murderer from Stockton whose execution was halted by Fogel last month because of questions about the state's lethal-injection methods....the judge asked numerous questions about how the drugs were administered but gave no indication of his views or any areas of concern.

by TChris

Death penalty opponents have no reason to be heartened by the Supreme Court's announcement that it will rehear argument in Kansas v. Marsh so that Justice Alito can break a tie vote. The issue in Marsh is the facial validity of a statute that requires a jury to vote for death when the aggravating and mitigating factors are equally balanced.

by TChris

UPDATE: This article suggests that prison personnel who have been administering lethal injections are dispensing controlled substances without being licensed to do so. The Justice Department complained about licensed physicians in Oregon dispensing drugs (pursuant to state law) to help terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. Why isn't Justice even more outraged about prison employees administering controlled substances who aren't licensed to dispense drugs?
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original post:

The court order requiring a medical professional to help in the execution of Michael Morales sparked a debate, noted here, about the appropriate role of physicians in bringing about the death of a person who doesn't want to die. The California Medical Association doesn't want doctors to be put in that position. It will ask the state legislature to prohibit the Department of Corrections from asking doctors to participate in executions.

by TChris

The execution of Michael Morales has been indefinitely postponed. As TalkLeft noted here, a judge insisted that an anesthesiologist attend the execution to assure that Morales was not subjected to extreme pain when three drugs were administered to end his life. As reported earlier today, the anesthesiologists concluded that it would be unethical to assist California's goal of taking Morales' life against his will. Authorities postponed the execution to this evening, hoping to kill Morales with a lethal dose of a sedative, but the judge required the sedative to be administered by a medical professional, and the state acknowledged that it could not comply with that order.

Because the death warrant expires at midnight, authorites will need to obtain a new one from the trial judge. The judge, however, "joined Morales this month in asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for clemency." Even if the judge is willing to sign a new death warrant, it will likely take months to resolve the legal challenges to executing Morales by lethal injection.

Two doctors have refused to participate in the execution of Michael Morales, forcing the prison to delay it, at least until tonight.

The exact wording of the judge's order was not immediately available, but the anesthesiologists issued a statement through the prison saying they were concerned about a requirement that they intervene in the event that Morales woke up or appeared to be in pain.

"Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical," said the doctors, who have not been identified. "As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process."

The prison planned to switch the lethal injection drugs, using barbituates instead of the three drug cocktail that many believe result in extreme pain being felt by the executionee if the drugs did not completely sedate him.

by TChris

Physicians aren't supposed to harm their patients. Is it ethical for a physician to help the government kill a prisoner?

A plan for California to use an anesthesiologist to monitor the chemically induced demise of a condemned killer has ignited concerns that doctors have no business assisting executions. ... "Physicians are healers, not executioners," the national anesthesiology group said in a statement Wednesday. "The doctor-patient relationship depends upon the inviolate principle that a doctor uses his or her medical expertise only for the benefit of patients."

Drugs used in California executions "can cause excruciating pain, in violation of the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment." A federal judge reviewing evidence of prior executions isn't convinced that inmates are rendered unconscious before they experience any pain. During the scheduled execution of Michael Morales on Tuesday, the judge wants California "to allow an anesthesiologist to observe and examine the inmate during the execution." That ruling has triggered a debate about using a doctor to assist the death of a healthy man.

Former independent counsel Ken Starr, who is representing a death row inmate seeking clemency from Gov. Schwarzenegger, has withdrawn the allegedly fabricated juror affidavits supporting clemency for the inmate.

....in a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, attorney David Senior said he and Starr were "withdrawing any and all reliance on any exhibits generated" by one of their investigators. The defense said it would withdraw five of the six statements.

A statement purportedly taken from Michael Morales' former roommate and submitted to the California Supreme Court also requires further investigation, Senior wrote. Keith Borjon, a state prosecutor, told the justices that Senior's letter appeared to acknowledge the documents were forged.

The San Francisco Chronicle provides this background on the controversy over the affidavits, which were obtained by a defense investigator.

Starr's co-counsel says that Morales still has a good chance for clemency:

by Last Night in Little Rock

The alleged shooter in the gay bar shooting in Massachusetts was arrested in Arkansas this afternoon after he allegedly shot a cop. The NY Times story is here and the Boston Globe story is here.