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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A legal and ethical bind has brought executions to a halt in North Carolina: A federal judge ruled that a doctor must monitor the condemned for signs of pain. But the state's medical board has threatened to punish any doctor who takes part in an execution.
The result: Gov. Mike Easley says no more executions until the state can "untangle this Gordian knot."
Challenges to lethal injection — namely, whether it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment — have effectively placed executions on hold in 11 states. The question of doctor participation has figured in some of those disputes.
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