Litigation continues in a lethal injection challenge in North Carolina. The latest AP report is on the Greensboro News-Record website as, "Death row inmate asks Supreme Court for stay."
While state law mandates that a doctor attend executions, the North Carolina Medical Board approved an ethics policy last week that prohibits the doctor from participating in any way, even monitoring vital signs.
Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk said in an affidavit filed Monday in a federal case on lethal injection that a doctor doesn't monitor the inmate's heart rate or consciousness.
Polk said the doctor is there only to sign a death certificate, but if the doctor felt the need to intervene, the warden would stop the execution.
A nurse watches the brain wave monitor that indicates the inmate's level of consciousness, Polk said. An emergency medical technician watches the heart rate. The doctor is in the same observation room.
Yesterday's post is here. More on the lethal injection issue is here.
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