Execution witness observed serious lethal injection procedural flaws

By Jason Bennert, Bay City News Service

September 27, 2006

SAN JOSE (BCN) - A Columbia University medical school anesthesiologist this morning criticized the team that performs inmate executions in California as being untrained, uncaring and unable to follow the state's written execution procedure.

Dr. Mark Heath is the main expert witness retained by the attorneys for condemned killer Michael Morales in their quest to convince U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel that California's lethal injection procedure violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" because there exists the possibility that condemned inmates could experience excruciating pain from the drugs used in the procedure.

Heath reviewed depositions given by California's execution team members and said he found serious flaws in their conduct during California's most recent executions.

"They don't seem to have a handle on what's going on," Heath said.

He found security problems with the execution team being around the controlled substances used in the lethal injections. One team member has been suspended in the past "for bringing illegal drugs into the prison," Heath said.

When the sodium thiopental, the drug used to render the condemned inmate unconscious, began being packaged in smaller doses, the team stopped following the state's execution procedure for anesthetizing a condemned inmate, Heath testified. They basically started making it up as they went along in the Clarence Ray Allen execution in January, according to Heath.

"They're testifying that they are deviating from the protocol, the most important part of the protocol," Heath said.

The nurse who prepares the sodium thiopental testified that she is not even interested in learning about the drug, according to Heath.

"She's being negligent. It's the most important part of the procedure," Heath said.

The anesthesia is the most important part of the lethal injection because the other two drugs used in the proposed procedure will both cause excruciating pain if the inmate is not unconscious when they are administered, Heath testified.

Despite his criticisms of the execution team members, Heath said they are not the reason that California's proposed execution procedure is flawed.

"They're doing the best they can in a very dysfunctional system," Heath said.

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