[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., S.C., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 9



NORTH CAROLINA:

Judge: Medical Board Wrong to Punish Death Penalty Docs


The North Carolina Medical Board overstepped its authority in threatening
to discipline any physician who participates in an execution, a judge said
Thursday at the same time that he tossed the legal dispute over the
state's death penalty back into the laps of state officials, ruling that
the Council of State needs to review the protocol for executions.

Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison Jr. noted that the medical
board was wrong to say it would punish doctors for assisting in executions
and that the board's efforts shouldn't prevent the state from carrying out
death sentences.

"Palliative care from a doctor to prevent unnecessary suffering, prior to
a person being injected with lethal drugs which can cause excruciating
pain, is not unprofessional or unethical," Morrison wrote in his ruling.
"To threaten to discipline a doctor for helping in this manner is not
regulating medicine for the benefit and protection of the people of North
Carolina."

Morrison concluded the Council of State  comprised of the governor,
lieutenant governor and eight other statewide elected officials  failed to
hear arguments from those representing the condemned inmates before they
approved a new "execution protocol."

"The essence of due process is the right to be heard," Morrison wrote in
his decision. "It was not proper procedure to consider only documents and
comments from those proposing the protocol and not hear from counsel for
the condemned inmates."

Morrison ordered the council to reconsider its approval of the new
protocol. A spokeswoman for North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper,
who sits on the Council of State, said his office was reviewing the
judge's decision.

Members of the medical board promise to uphold the state constitution and
follow the Council of State when they take their oaths of office. Because
the state allows the death penalty under certain circumstances, the
medical board shouldn't try to block executions, Morrison wrote.

"It is part of North Carolinas public policy, which is not to be stymied
by a non-binding position statement," he wrote.

Medical board members are reviewing the ruling and had no comment on it,
spokesman Dale Breaden said. The board stands by its policy on capital
punishment, he said.

The medical board adopted the policy in January, saying that participating
in an execution would violate a physician's code of ethics. Any physician
who took part in an execution faced having his or her medical license
suspended by the board, according to the policy.

State law requires that a doctor be present at executions to guarantee
that a condemned inmate doesn't suffer, which would violate the
constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled in January that the medical
board's policy and the state's protocol for carrying out executions
conflicted with each other, and he placed several planned executions on
hold until the Council of State could resolve the matter.

The Council of State revised the execution protocol in February, calling
for a more active role by doctors.

2 inmates sued the state over the new protocol, and Morrison ruled
Thursday that the Council of State needs to revisit the protocol.

"The state has made a very important policy decision that we're going to
execute people," said Lucy Inman, an attorney representing death row
inmate James A. Campbell, who was scheduled to die in early February.
"It's an important and profound policy decision, and if we want to have
public confidence in our policy, we need to be sure that it's imposed
fairly and properly."

The protocol shouldn't allow a prison warden to halt an execution in
process and shouldn't let a warden use a single monitor to determine if an
inmate is unconscious during the execution, Morrison ruled. He also said
state officials need to receive input from death-row prisoners before
approving a new protocol.

Easley told WRAL that he didn't think the Council of State should hear
from attorneys for death-row inmates while reviewing the execution
protocol. Given the backgrounds of the council members, he said the panel
doesn't have the expertise to make a decision in the matter.

Easley has called the debate, which has involved the council, two state
agencies, several courts and an independent regulatory panel, a "Gordian
knot." He urged the state legislature to try and resolve the dispute, but
lawmakers adjourned for the year earlier this month without taking any
action.

(source: WRAL News)

********************

Doctor didn't monitor injection----Judge: Execution didn't follow plan


North Carolina prison officials persuaded a federal judge to let an
execution proceed by promising that a doctor would monitor the prisoner's
vital signs, but the doctor did not, a judge ruled Thursday. Mark
Kleindschmidt, an attorney who represents a death row prisoner, said
administrative Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr.'s finding was the first time in
the current execution debate that a judge found the state had not lived up
to its words. "The Department of Correction attorneys kind of misled a
federal judge," Kleindschmidt said.

Morrison, who is hearing a challenge to the state's execution methods,
said prison officials told a federal judge they would satisfy his order to
have a doctor monitor Willie Brown's execution in 2006.

"Prison officials through their attorneys seemed to be telling a federal
judge that ... a licensed physician would be monitoring vital signs,"
Morrison said. "This persuaded the judge to let them execute Willie Brown.
The doctor did not observe the inmate nor did he monitor vital signs."

Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said prison
officials "are not a party to the lawsuit" and would not comment further.

The ruling is the latest action in a series of legal challenges to the
state's execution procedure. The conflict between doctors' ethical
obligations and the right of prisoners to a humane death has effectively
halted executions in North Carolina for nearly a year. Five death row
inmates have filed suit and their executions were postponed while the
Medical Board, top state officials, the courts and legislators square off.

The state Medical Board's ethics policy allows doctors to be present at an
execution but prohibits them from participating in any way, including
monitoring vital signs or other bodily functions. But state law requires a
doctor's presence at executions.

Morrison's statements came in a ruling Thursday on a lawsuit filed by the
prisoners against the the Council of State, a panel of top elected state
officials. At issue was whether the council should have heard arguments
from attorneys for death row inmates before approving the state's new
execution protocol Feb. 6.

The council considered the issue after a state court judge decided a 1919
law requires it to approve changes to North Carolina's method of
execution. The protocol it approved requires a physician to monitor a
condemned inmate's "essential body functions" and tell the warden if the
inmate shows signs of suffering.

The state had changed its lethal injection process to satisfy U.S.
District Judge Malcom Howard, who demanded last year that a doctor oversee
an execution and the state medical board, in January said it would punish
any doctor who takes an active role in an execution.

On Thursday, Morrison found that the council erred. He ordered members to
reconsider their decision and to hear the attorneys out.

"They seemed intent on approving the protocol," Morrison wrote.

"The essence of due process is the right to be heard ... and it was not
proper procedure to consider only documents and comments from those
proposing the protocol."

Gov. Mike Easley, who heads the council, was adamant Thursday that the
council did no wrong and said the state would appeal Morrison's ruling.

Kleinschmidt, who represents one of the death row prisoners who challenged
the execution procedure, said all sides should have a voice. "If the
Council of State is doing its job appropriately it will allow all of the
parties directly affected by the protocol to participate," he said.

Though much of Morrison's ruling centered on prison officials, the Medical
Board and doctors were not spared criticism.

Under the Medical Board's ethics policy, doctors who participate in an
execution could face disciplinary action. In his ruling, Morrison said
doctors should not be punished for monitoring whether a death row prisoner
is suffering unduly.

"They want help, not harm from a doctor," Morrison said. "To threaten to
discipline a doctor for helping in this manner is not regulating medicine
for the benefit of the people of North Carolina. [The death penalty] is
part of North Carolina's public policy, which is not to be stymied by a
non-binding position statement."

A spokesman for the medical board would not comment on the ruling.

2006

April 17: U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard allows Willie Brown to be
executed, thinking that state officials will have a doctor and a nurse
monitor the inmate's consciousness on a brain wave machine.

April 21: Brown is executed.

July 25: Howard issues a similar order allowing Samuel Flippen to be
executed. Aug. 18: Flippen is executed.

Nov. 28: Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk testifies in a deposition that
the doctor's only role was to be present and did not have any role reading
the brain-wave machine.

2007

Jan. 18: The N.C. Medical Board passes an ethics policy that prohibits a
doctor from doing anything more than be present at an execution.

Jan. 25: Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens delays two executions
saying prison officials must get Gov. Mike Easley and the Council of State
to approve the revised execution procedures. (In the following weeks,
Stephens delays 2 more executions.)

Feb. 6: Easley and the Council of State approve an execution procedure
where a doctor will monitor the inmate's essential body functions.

March 6: Prison officials announce they cannot find a willing doctor for
the execution of Allen Holman, who wanted to be put to death. They also
sue the medical board asking a judge to rule that the board cannot
discipline a doctor for being involved in an execution, arguing that
execution is not the practice of medicine.

(source: News & Observer)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Convicted Killer of 3 Social Workers Asks for Death Penalty


A man convicted of killing three social workers in Aiken County more than
a decade ago wants to drop his appeals and be put to death.

Police say 47-year-old David Mark Hill walked into a Department of Social
Services office in North Augusta in 1996 and shot his family's case worker
and 2 others employees.

Hill asked a judge Wendesday to withdraw his request for post conviction
relief. Hill also wants his right to more appeals waived.

Circuit Judge Jack Early found Hill is competent to make the decision.

Hill's attorney, David Miller, says the state Supreme Court will review
Hill's request and could set an execution date in the coming months.
Miller says he disagrees with Hill's decision.

Jimmy Riddle, Josie Curry and Michael Gregory died in the shooting.

(source: WLTX News)






ALABAMA:

Jurors recommend death penalty for Phenix City man


A Russell County jury has voted to recommend the death penalty for Brent
Martin following his conviction on 3counts each of capital murder and
kidnapping.

The jury's vote Wednesday was 10-2, but Circuit Judge George Greene can
reject the recommendation and sentence Martin, 34, to life in prison
without parole at an Aug. 28 sentencing hearing.

Jurors found Martin guilty of capital murder Monday in the 2005, slayings
of his brother-in-law Johnnie Randolph III, 21, and Darryl Maurice
Carrillo, 18, in Phenix City. They had been kidnapped along with Alicia
Dixon, her daughter Amari Dixon, and Nakayla Randolph, the daughter of
Martin's estranged wife, LaKeisha Randolph, and the niece of Johnnie
Randolph III.

Authorities said Martin kidnapped the five around 5 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2005,
and killed the 2men in Phenix City later that evening. He was arrested
when he tried to flee a relative's home where he had taken the last
2hostages after Alicia Dixon escaped.

He was believed to have kindapped the five in an attempt to lure his
estranged wife to him.

"I think both families are happy about the verdict," Carrillo's father,
Rick Carrillo, said.

(source: Associated Press)