Death on trial today

[ccharles000]

Dan Kane writes a good, clear story today about what's at stake as the NC Supreme Court hears arguments about the role of doctors in killing criminals.

The state's highest court will hear legal arguments today that could break the two-year stalemate on executions in North Carolina -- or extend the de facto moratorium. The N.C. Medical Board has effectively shut down the executions, which are done by lethal injection, by prohibiting doctors from taking part. The board contends such participation violates the profession's mission to preserve life.

But state law requires a doctor to be on hand, and botched injections in other states in recent years have emphasized that need.

I've never quite been able to get my head around the stunning contradictions our legal system has tried to finesse when it comes to capital punishment, though plenty of people here have written about it.

If the court rules that the medical board cannot bar doctors from taking part in executions, lawyers representing death row inmates have another legal avenue to pursue. They have challenged a Council of State decision setting up the execution procedure because the statewide elected officials did not allow for comment from the lawyers.

http://bluenc.com/death-trial-again

[Orrex]

1. Capital punishment is state-sanctioned premeditated murder.

No matter how many doctors are present, and no matter what the condemned person might have done prior to the execution. If he or she has been rendered harmless (e.g., by effective incarceration) then there is no justification for killing him or her.

If someone murdered one of my loved ones, then you can bet your ass that I'd want that killer to be executed as slowly and as painfully as possible, and for that matter I'd be very eager to do the job myself. But because I am a reasonably civilized human being, I recognize that such profound matters as murder-by-the-state must not be decided by emotionalism or in times of personal trauma.


If it's determined that doctors can't be barred from taking part, can individual doctors still refuse to participate?

[stillcool]

2. I am so confused by the advocates..

for and against the death penalty. The cause for the ills of our society will not be cured by death. Nor by life in prison. People really over-value life. It's so easy to send people off to war, and subject others to poverty, abuse, and neglect. Nobody cares. Why not just kill them all and be done with it. After all they are the more heinous future criminals.

[ccharles000]

3. I think if you plot to kill someone you should go to jail for life.