Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 6:38:21 GMT -5
Doctor describes chaotic handling of executions ---- Anesthesiologist
testifies that methods used on San Quentin's death row aren't conducive to
prisoner's pain-free death
A medical witness at a federal court hearing on California's execution
procedures described a chaotic system Wednesday in which untrained
employees inject unknown amounts of lethal drugs into the prisoner from a
dimly lit and overcrowded chamber, with little monitoring of the
chemicals' effects.
Anesthesiologist Mark Heath's testimony was the centerpiece of a
constitutional challenge by lawyers for condemned murderer Michael Morales
to the state's lethal injection methods. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel
of San Jose has blocked Morales' execution, effectively halting all
executions in California, while he considers whether the procedures
contain flaws that pose significant risk of causing unnecessary and
extreme pain.
Morales, 46, of Stockton was convicted of raping and fatally battering
17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi in 1981. Courts have upheld his death
sentence, but his scheduled Feb. 21 execution was stayed by Fogel when the
state was unable to find anesthesiologists or other medically trained
personnel to monitor his anesthesia, as ordered by the judge.
Heath, a Columbia University physician who has testified against injection
methods in other states, said the procedures used in California since 1996
ranked in the bottom quarter of the 37 states using lethal injection.
He said evidence of a breakdown in the system appears in San Quentin State
Prison's execution logs, in which doctors in more than half the executions
reported that the prisoner appeared to be breathing after being given the
sedative, which should have stopped his respiration.
"When somebody's breathing like that, they're not in a deep state of
anesthesia," Heath said. "They might not even be unconscious."
If conscious, he said, the prisoner would be aware -- but paralyzed and
unable to cry out or signal in any way -- as he was suffocated by a 2nd
chemical. The prisoner then also would suffer excruciating pain and heart
failure from the third drug, Heath said.
Heath cited problems during December's execution of Stanley Tookie
Williams, the former gang leader and multiple murderer who became an
anti-gang crusader in prison. A staff member tried and failed to insert a
backup syringe into Williams' left arm in case the syringe in his right
arm was obstructed. Unable to insert the backup, the staff member finally
used an intravenous tube that wasn't working as the backup. The warden
nevertheless ordered the execution to proceed, and the team leader learned
of the difficulty only after Williams was pronounced dead, Heath said.
Williams was executed without any need for the backup syringe.
"There was a total breakdown of communication of critical information,"
Heath said.
On cross-examination, Senior Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette
sought to portray Heath as biased, based on his opposition to capital
punishment, and got him to acknowledge that he had no concrete evidence of
consciousness or pain during the 11 lethal injections performed at San
Quentin. Gillette also suggested that the chest movements recorded by
doctors as breathing may have been unconscious reflexive activity.
But Heath said there was little reason to believe the state's assertions
of pain-free executions in light of the numerous defects in the system:
-- Members of the prison's execution team, when questioned about sodium
pentothal, the sedative used to cause unconsciousness, gave wildly
inconsistent answers about the number of syringes they used and the needed
dosages and knew little about the effects of any of the drugs.
"I don't study, I just do the job," said the prison nurse who formerly
mixed the pentothal. She also said some of the solution remained in the
bottle after injections -- evidence, Heath said, that the prisoner may not
be getting enough of the anesthetic.
-- The anteroom where the drugs are prepared and injected is deliberately
kept dark, with only a faint red bulb, to conceal the executioners'
identities. The room is also typically crowded with state officials who
are observing the execution. One nurse testified that after preparing a
syringe, she handed it to someone she couldn't see.
-- The execution chamber, which was used as the gas chamber until a
federal judge barred lethal gas executions in 1994, is airtight and
virtually soundproof, making it impossible to hear any sounds of distress
from the prisoner during execution. No one else is inside the chamber --
making medical monitoring of the anesthesia impossible -- and only a few
members of the execution team can even see the prisoner, with none having
a full view, Heath said.
-- The prison's record-keeping system for the drugs is shoddy and an
invitation to drug abuse. Heath said one execution team leader checked out
a full execution's supply of sodium pentothal -- a barbiturate that can
have intoxicating effects -- for rehearsals in which no drugs were
actually used. Pentothal was also checked out by a team leader who was
once suspended for bringing illegal drugs into the prison, he said.
Heath also criticized state officials' conduct at a meeting supervised by
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legal adviser in February, a week after
Morales' execution was stayed.
According to a participant's notes, displayed in court, a physician at the
meeting suggested using a different barbiturate and adding an opiate like
morphine to relieve pain, but Gillette, the state's death penalty
coordinator, objected to changing drugs on the grounds that courts had
approved the currently used chemicals. The state then announced revised
procedures, including a continuous infusion of sodium pentothal, which
Heath said would not remedy the problem.
Rather than seeking to make executions more humane, "they're trying to
meet a legal finish line," he said.
Fogel questioned Heath extensively and appeared interested in the witness'
suggestion that a lethal dose of sodium pentothal or some other
barbiturate,perhaps preceded by morphine to calm the inmate, would
minimize the risk of a painful execution.
Barbiturates are commonly used to euthanize pets, and their owners are
"very impressed by how peaceful it is," Heath said.
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)
testifies that methods used on San Quentin's death row aren't conducive to
prisoner's pain-free death
A medical witness at a federal court hearing on California's execution
procedures described a chaotic system Wednesday in which untrained
employees inject unknown amounts of lethal drugs into the prisoner from a
dimly lit and overcrowded chamber, with little monitoring of the
chemicals' effects.
Anesthesiologist Mark Heath's testimony was the centerpiece of a
constitutional challenge by lawyers for condemned murderer Michael Morales
to the state's lethal injection methods. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel
of San Jose has blocked Morales' execution, effectively halting all
executions in California, while he considers whether the procedures
contain flaws that pose significant risk of causing unnecessary and
extreme pain.
Morales, 46, of Stockton was convicted of raping and fatally battering
17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi in 1981. Courts have upheld his death
sentence, but his scheduled Feb. 21 execution was stayed by Fogel when the
state was unable to find anesthesiologists or other medically trained
personnel to monitor his anesthesia, as ordered by the judge.
Heath, a Columbia University physician who has testified against injection
methods in other states, said the procedures used in California since 1996
ranked in the bottom quarter of the 37 states using lethal injection.
He said evidence of a breakdown in the system appears in San Quentin State
Prison's execution logs, in which doctors in more than half the executions
reported that the prisoner appeared to be breathing after being given the
sedative, which should have stopped his respiration.
"When somebody's breathing like that, they're not in a deep state of
anesthesia," Heath said. "They might not even be unconscious."
If conscious, he said, the prisoner would be aware -- but paralyzed and
unable to cry out or signal in any way -- as he was suffocated by a 2nd
chemical. The prisoner then also would suffer excruciating pain and heart
failure from the third drug, Heath said.
Heath cited problems during December's execution of Stanley Tookie
Williams, the former gang leader and multiple murderer who became an
anti-gang crusader in prison. A staff member tried and failed to insert a
backup syringe into Williams' left arm in case the syringe in his right
arm was obstructed. Unable to insert the backup, the staff member finally
used an intravenous tube that wasn't working as the backup. The warden
nevertheless ordered the execution to proceed, and the team leader learned
of the difficulty only after Williams was pronounced dead, Heath said.
Williams was executed without any need for the backup syringe.
"There was a total breakdown of communication of critical information,"
Heath said.
On cross-examination, Senior Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette
sought to portray Heath as biased, based on his opposition to capital
punishment, and got him to acknowledge that he had no concrete evidence of
consciousness or pain during the 11 lethal injections performed at San
Quentin. Gillette also suggested that the chest movements recorded by
doctors as breathing may have been unconscious reflexive activity.
But Heath said there was little reason to believe the state's assertions
of pain-free executions in light of the numerous defects in the system:
-- Members of the prison's execution team, when questioned about sodium
pentothal, the sedative used to cause unconsciousness, gave wildly
inconsistent answers about the number of syringes they used and the needed
dosages and knew little about the effects of any of the drugs.
"I don't study, I just do the job," said the prison nurse who formerly
mixed the pentothal. She also said some of the solution remained in the
bottle after injections -- evidence, Heath said, that the prisoner may not
be getting enough of the anesthetic.
-- The anteroom where the drugs are prepared and injected is deliberately
kept dark, with only a faint red bulb, to conceal the executioners'
identities. The room is also typically crowded with state officials who
are observing the execution. One nurse testified that after preparing a
syringe, she handed it to someone she couldn't see.
-- The execution chamber, which was used as the gas chamber until a
federal judge barred lethal gas executions in 1994, is airtight and
virtually soundproof, making it impossible to hear any sounds of distress
from the prisoner during execution. No one else is inside the chamber --
making medical monitoring of the anesthesia impossible -- and only a few
members of the execution team can even see the prisoner, with none having
a full view, Heath said.
-- The prison's record-keeping system for the drugs is shoddy and an
invitation to drug abuse. Heath said one execution team leader checked out
a full execution's supply of sodium pentothal -- a barbiturate that can
have intoxicating effects -- for rehearsals in which no drugs were
actually used. Pentothal was also checked out by a team leader who was
once suspended for bringing illegal drugs into the prison, he said.
Heath also criticized state officials' conduct at a meeting supervised by
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legal adviser in February, a week after
Morales' execution was stayed.
According to a participant's notes, displayed in court, a physician at the
meeting suggested using a different barbiturate and adding an opiate like
morphine to relieve pain, but Gillette, the state's death penalty
coordinator, objected to changing drugs on the grounds that courts had
approved the currently used chemicals. The state then announced revised
procedures, including a continuous infusion of sodium pentothal, which
Heath said would not remedy the problem.
Rather than seeking to make executions more humane, "they're trying to
meet a legal finish line," he said.
Fogel questioned Heath extensively and appeared interested in the witness'
suggestion that a lethal dose of sodium pentothal or some other
barbiturate,perhaps preceded by morphine to calm the inmate, would
minimize the risk of a painful execution.
Barbiturates are commonly used to euthanize pets, and their owners are
"very impressed by how peaceful it is," Heath said.
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)