*Blog Editor Note* NASW-NC supports a moratorium on the death penalty in NC. In the 2007 Session NASW-NC was part of the coalition working to end death penalty for those with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness.
Execution Protocol
The Council of State was not required to hear from death row inmates before revising execution procedures in North Carolina, attorneys for the council argued in court documents filed Monday. The attorneys were responding to inmates' lawyers who said the panel acted illegally by not hearing from inmates or their representatives. The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, also contends that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol. "Injury only occurs if the execution protocol is improperly implemented," the council's response said.
Like most states, North Carolina uses a three-drug combination, the first to render unconsciousness, the second to paralyze all muscles except the heart, and the third to stop the heart. The Council of State took up the protocol issue after a Superior Court judge decided a nearly 100-year-old law requires the council to approve changes to North Carolina's method of execution. The council decided that a physician must monitor a condemned inmate's "essential body functions" and tell the warden of Central Prison if the inmate shows signs of suffering. The fight, along with other legal challenges, has effectively put executions on hold in North Carolina.
(Dome, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/14/08).
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