Dec. 29



OHIO;

Judge's ruling ---- Lethal injection details revealed


The team that executes Ohio's death row inmates prepares for each
lethal
injection for a month, undergoes training at least 4 times a year and
has at least one member who is nationally certified by a pathology
board,
according to state documents released to the public for the 1st time.

Common Pleas Judge James Burge of Lorain County unsealed a 632-page
binder
of documents on how the state executes death row inmates, revealing
everything from the qualifications of execution team members to how the
warden signals for the lethal drugs to be administered.

The state turned over the binder two weeks ago to Burge, who will
consider
whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual
punishment. A status conference on the lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 8,
said ACLU attorney Jeffrey Gamso, who represents two defendants
challenging the lethal injection method.

He believes the documents show the execution team is unqualified to
carry
out the procedure.

"What's clear is they're not competent to kill people without torturing
them to death. Much of the time they are torturing them to death,"
Gamso
said. "If these guys aren't being tortured to death, they're lucky."

The injection of the drugs begins after the warden of the Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility buttons his jacket as he stands over the
condemned
inmate strapped to the execution table, the documents say.

The documents, originally sealed by Burge at the request of the state,
were released Thursday after a public-records request from The
Chronicle-Telegram of Elyria and a letter from the newspaper's
attorney.
Burge ordered county Prosecutor Dennis Will to redact the names of
execution team members in the copies given to the newspaper.

"We believe our execution team members are well-trained and able to
carry
out the responsibilities they have when it comes to that specific
assignment," said Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction.

The state has been reluctant to say anything about who serves on the
16-member execution team and, particularly, the medical training
received
by the three members who prepare an inmate's veins and inject the
drugs.

One document shows that a medical team member is certified by the
American
Society of Clinical Pathologists' Board of Registry. Redacted from the
document is the kind of expertise for which the team member is
certified.
The organization handles certifications for numerous jobs in pathology
and
laboratory work, including hematologists, phlebotomists and those who
work
in blood banks, according to the society's Web site.

Another document shows that a team member attended 14 hours of
"Comprehensive Intravenous Therapy for Nurses" this year.

The state has conducted two executions in the past two years in which
the
execution team struggled to find suitable veins in the inmates' arms.
One
took nearly 90 minutes and the other two hours.

Under correction department guidelines, medical-team members are drawn
from across the state and must be able, under Ohio law, to administer
the
intravenous drugs used in the lethal-injection process.

Before they join the execution team, any would-be member must pass a
rigorous screening process, which includes a review of their record
with
the prison system; gain the approval of the warden and other prison
officials; and be confirmed by a vote of the current execution team
members, according to the documents.

The team members practice once a week for 4 weeks before each
execution, including preparation for handling inmates who physically
resist.

In one document dealing with the 2006 execution of Darrell Ferguson --
a
"volunteer" who chose not to appeal his sentence beyond legal
requirements
-- the team planned how to respond if Ferguson changed his mind after
the
first drug, a sedative, had begun to put him to sleep.

Inmates Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud are challenging the
lethal-injection method, saying the drugs don't give the quick and
painless deaths required by Ohio law. Both are being held in jail and
could receive death sentences if convicted in two separate Lorain
County
murders.

Executioners train using an artificial arm that they inject with water,
according to state documents.

Laurie Badzek, director of the American Nurses' Association's Center
for
Ethics and Human Rights, said nurses practice using artificial arms,
but
likely also would train on consenting patients.

If execution team members have enough training to avoid torturing an
inmate with an IV, they would be governed by medical ethics that rule
out
doing deliberate harm, said Dr. Jonathan I. Groner, professor of
clinical
surgery at the Ohio State University college of medicine and a critic
of
lethal injection.

"It's hard to have it both ways," he said by phone from New York City.

Groner discounted the value of using a mannequin to practice,
especially
for preparing to execute an inmate with a history of heroin abuse or
one
who is obese.

"Competence requires hands-on training using human beings in a
supervised
setting," he said.

The team members -- 3 of whom have participated in all 26 executions
since Ohio resumed eecuting death row inmates in 1999 -- undergo
training
at least four times a year, according to the documents.

In addition to regular and pre-execution training, personnel on the
execution team must keep their certifications on injecting intravenous
drugs current. The documents turned over by the state reveal several
booklets on administering drugs, including finding suitable veins, and
how
to handle the equipment used in the process.

Some of the manuals in the documents are written by and for nurses,
including one that advises any nurse who can't fix a blocked IV line
themselves to "call your surgeon and beg forgiveness."

Recommendations for executions

Documents unsealed Thursday by a Lorain County judge showed that Edwin
C.
Voorhies Jr., warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, made
the
following recommendations for improving the execution process in Ohio,
after delays in which an inmate's veins could not be located:

Formalize the vein inspection process. (It previously was done during
a
medical exam without the inmate's knowledge.) Propose briefing the
inmate
and formally assessing vein viability at the primary injection sites.

Prepare a second complete set of syringes for contingencies.

Make provisions for the comfort of medical team members during the
insertion process (stools with wheels and adjustable seats).

Formally develop contingency plans for delays.

(source: Associated Press)

__________________
I need coffee

Interesting, if one of my pps sent this to me I'd say "So what do you think about this?" So, Lulu, what do you think about this?