Doctors and executions

Opinion
Doctors and executions
JOURNAL EDITORIAL STAFF
Published: May 10, 2009

A ruling from the N.C. Supreme Court brings the state a step closer
to resuming executions. Other cases are still pending. Questions from
legislators should be pending as well. The General Assembly needs to
tackle the issue raised in the case: Should doctors participate in
executions? And before it takes up that and other questions, it
should impose an official moratorium on the death penalty.

There's been an unofficial moratorium as the courts wrestle with the
doctor question. The last inmate executed was Samuel Flippen of
Forsyth County, who was convicted of killing his two-year-old
stepdaughter. He was put to death in August 2006. Since then, 163
people have sat in limbo on death row as the courts responded to the
question of whether doctors should participate in executions. Doctors
had been assuring the proper doses of lethal drugs at executions and
certifying death.

The state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of the N.C. Department of
Correction earlier this month, saying that the N.C. Medical Board
overstepped its authority when it issued a position statement saying
it could punish doctors for participating in an execution.

As we said on this page in December, this is a matter of public
policy. Associate Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson reiterated in her
dissent that the N.C. General Assembly should decide. The failure of
the legislature to address the question has meant that it has
inappropriately landed in court.

Gov. Bev. Perdue should encourage legislators to take up this issue.
And despite pleas from Republican leaders that executions resume, she
should ask the legislature to declare a moratorium until all
outstanding issues are resolved.

Other lawsuits over the state's execution procedures are pending, the
Journal's Dan Galindo and Paul Garber reported. Those suits include
one in Wake Superior Court challenging how the N.C. Council of State
changed execution procedures in 2007 to require someone with medical
training to play a role in the execution.

Although a few legislators have continued to keep the death penalty
issue in the forefront during the unofficial moratorium, it has given
many others a break from the controversial topic.

A House select committee's study of capital punishment underscored
that the big questions have not gone away. Reforms in the legal
discovery process, recording of interrogations and police lineup
procedures have been implemented and are welcome, but much more is
needed. High-profile cases have continued to expose the flaws in the
system, including mistakes made by police, prosecutors and defense
attorneys.

From December 2007 through the spring of last year, three men who
had been on death row -- Glen Edward Chapman, Jonathan Hoffman and
Levon "Bo" Jones -- were freed from prison after serious flaws in
their cases were finally exposed. It's sobering to consider that they
could have been executed before the truth was discovered. "You can
overturn a wrongful conviction, but you can't unpack a wrong grave,"
the Rev. William Barber of the NAACP said at a press conference with
the three men last year, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

In several other states, DNA testing has either freed or helped free
prisoners from death row.

Most death penalty cases aren't as dramatic. In most cases, there's
little question that the prisoners are guilty of the crimes for which
they've been convicted. But there are serious questions about the
application of the death penalty in some cases when defendants in
equally brutal crimes drew life in prison.

The death sentence is often imposed arbitrarily. Sometimes, it seems
it's just a matter of geography. Flippen was convicted of hitting
Britnie Nichol Hutton so hard that her liver and pancreas were torn,
but people who have committed even worse crimes in this state have
not been subjected to the ultimate punishment. For example, in
liberal Orange County, a woman charged in 2005 with killing her best
friend's daughter by placing her in scalding water did not face the
death penalty.

Gender plays a big role as well, with women rarely facing the death
penalty in this state. As does race, class and money.
These issues must be dealt with. Whether or not the courts clear the
way for executions to resume, citizens should insist that the
legislature declare a moratorium on the death penalty as it seeks to
resolve these issues. The condemned, after all, are killed in the
name of each and every one of us.

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