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Entries tagged with “Medical Professionals”

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Feb 23, 2017

American Nurses Association Adopts Position Statement Against Capital Punishment

In an expan­sion of their stance oppos­ing nurse par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions, the American Nurses Association (ANA) announced on February 21, 2017 that the orga­ni­za­tion now for the first time oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment itself. ​“Capital pun­ish­ment is a human rights vio­la­tion, and ANA is proud to stand in strong oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty,” ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano said. ​“All human beings, regard­less of their crimes, should be treat­ed with dig­ni­ty. For those states where cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is cur­rent­ly legal, the American Nurses Association will con­tin­ue to pro­vide eth­i­cal guidance,…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Jul 05, 2006

Anesthesiologists Advised to Avoid Lethal Injections

Dr. Orin Guidry, pres­i­dent of the 40,000-member American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), issued a pub­lic state­ment strong­ly urg­ing mem­bers to ​“steer clear” of any par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions by lethal injec­tion. In a four-page ​“Message from the President,” Guidry not­ed that anes­the­si­ol­o­gists have been ​“reluc­tant­ly thrust into the mid­dle” of the legal con­tro­ver­sy over lethal injec­tions. In recent months, the pro­ce­dures being used around the United States have been chal­lenged because they may result in unnec­es­sary and excru­ci­at­ing pain in vio­la­tion of the ban on cru­el and unusu­al punishment.

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Mar 13, 2007

DOCTOR’S VIEW: ​“In the Execution Chamber, Medicine is Misplaced”

Dr. Philip B. Woodhall, M.D., who prac­ticed emer­gency med­i­cine in North Carolina for many years, recent­ly wrote about the pro­posed role of doc­tors in car­ry­ing out lethal injec­tions. He stat­ed that med­i­cine and exe­cu­tions do not mix. “[D]octors are giv­en extra­or­di­nary rights and priv­i­leges,” he wrote, and ​“these pow­ers are ded­i­cat­ed to the preser­va­tion of human life, not to the ser­vice of death.” Woodhall urged North Carolina’s Department of Corrections to aban­don efforts to include doc­tors in any aspect of exe­cu­tions. He fur­ther com­ment­ed: When I think about executions…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Mental Illness

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New Voices

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Military

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Nov 13, 2017

Former Florida Death-Row Doctor: Experience of Veterans Highlights Death Penalty’s Failures

A for­mer Florida death-row doc­tor says the expe­ri­ence of U.S. mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who have been sen­tenced to death pro­vides a lens through which the pub­lic can bet­ter under­stand some of the fail­ures of the state’s death penal­ty and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for mean­ing­ful reform of the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Mar 13, 2017

Inventor of Midazolam Opposes Its Use in Executions

As U.S. phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have removed med­i­cines from the mar­ket to pre­vent states from obtain­ing them for exe­cu­tions, states have turned to alter­na­tives, like the seda­tive mida­zo­lam. Dr. Armin Walser, who was part of the team that invent­ed the drug in the 1970s, is dis­mayed at that devel­op­ment. ​“I didn’t make it for the pur­pose” of exe­cut­ing pris­on­ers, Dr. Walser told The New York Times. ​“I am not a friend of the death penal­ty or execution.”

Facts & Research

History of the Death Penalty

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New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Jul 11, 2017

Journal of Psychiatrist Who Presided Over 14 Texas Executions Reveals Mental Toll That May Have Contributed to Suicide

As a psy­chi­a­trist in the Wayne Unit of Texas’ Huntsville prison from 1960 to 1963, Dr. Lee Hartman presided over 14 elec­tric-chair exe­cu­tions. When his grand­son, Ben Hartman, a jour­nal­ist, began inves­ti­gat­ing Dr. Hartman’s life, he dis­cov­ered jour­nals that chron­i­cle those exe­cu­tions and the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll they took, pos­si­bly con­tribut­ing to Dr. Hartman’s sui­cide in 1964. Dr. Hartman’s jour­nals con­tain basic data on the men who were exe­cut­ed, includ­ing their names, race, a sum­ma­ry of the crime, and notes on the exe­cu­tion itself. More pro­found­ly, though, they cap­ture Dr. Hartman’s…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Apr 13, 2020

Medical Professionals Ask Death-Penalty States to Turn Over Execution Drugs Needed for Coronavirus Treatment

As hos­pi­tals through­out the coun­try face short­ages of cru­cial med­ica­tions need­ed to treat patients with COVID-19, a group of lead­ing anes­the­si­ol­o­gists, phar­ma­cists and med­ical aca­d­e­mics is ask­ing cor­rec­tions offi­cials in death-penal­ty states to turn over stock­piles of their exe­cu­tion drugs to hos­pi­tals so they can be used for ther­a­peu­tic purposes.

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Jan 13, 2017

Mental Health Professionals, Religious Leaders Join Ricky Gray’s Plea for Clemency

Ricky Gray (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on January 18, is seek­ing clemen­cy from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and his clemen­cy peti­tion has been joined by a diverse group of men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als and the Virginia Catholic Conference. A let­ter signed by more than 50 men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als, includ­ing two for­mer com­mis­sion­ers of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, urges McAuliffe to com­mute Gray’s sen­tence because of Gray’s his­to­ry of ​“hor­rif­ic” child­hood abuse and his addic­tion at the time of the crime. Gray’s jury never…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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New Voices

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Jun 15, 2017

NEW VOICES: A Psychologist — a War Veteran with Schizophrenia — Urges Adoption of a Death Penalty Exemption for Severe Mental Illness

In a recent com­men­tary arti­cle in Medium, psy­chol­o­gist Dr. Frederick J. Frese, III (pic­tured) — a Marine Corps vet­er­an who has him­self been diag­nosed with para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia — argues that Congress and state leg­is­la­tures should pass laws exempt­ing peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty. ​“Supporters and oppo­nents of the death penal­ty agree that it should only be reserved for the most cul­pa­ble and delib­er­ate of crim­i­nals who com­mit heinous crimes,” Frese writes. He says that “[m]y expe­ri­ence as a prac­ti­tion­er who has him­self expe­ri­enced psy­chosis or a flight from real­i­ty has…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Executions Overview

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Jul 18, 2006

NEW VOICES: American Medical Association, EMT Association Say Participation in Executions Violates Medical Ethics

Both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) recent­ly issued pub­lic state­ments remind­ing mem­bers of their eth­i­cal oblig­a­tion not to par­tic­i­pate in legal­ly autho­rized exe­cu­tions. As courts and leg­is­la­tures through­out the coun­try con­tin­ue to strug­gle with ques­tions relat­ed to lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures, AMA pres­i­dent William G. Plested III not­ed that AMA pol­i­cy clear­ly pro­hibits med­ical pro­fes­sion­als from par­tic­i­pat­ing in exe­cu­tions because it ​“erodes pub­lic con­fi­dence in the med­ical pro­fes­sion.” The NAEMT issued a posi­tion paper stat­ing that mem­ber par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions is forbidden…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Jun 28, 2006

NEW VOICES: Deepak Chopra Writes About the Death Penalty

Dr. Deepak Chopra recent­ly wrote that con­tin­u­ing use of the death penal­ty in the U.S. is irra­tional because it does not deter crime, risks inno­cent lives, and iso­lates the U.S. among the major­i­ty of First World nations that have cho­sen to aban­don cap­i­tal punishment:The U.S. has iso­lat­ed itself among First World coun­tries by allow­ing the death penal­ty — 123 coun­tries have abol­ished it com­plete­ly, or in prac­tice nev­er use it, a few per­mit­ting it under extreme circumstances.Of the 50 coun­tries that new­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty since 1985, only 4…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Apr 20, 2016

NEW VOICES: Head of National Pharmacist’s Group Opposes Lethal Injection Secrecy

Leonard Edloe (pic­tured), President of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation has urged Virginia law­mak­ers to reject Governor Terry McAuliffe’s pro­pos­al to con­ceal the iden­ti­ty of the state’s exe­cu­tion drug sup­pli­ers, say­ing that the plan ​“under­mines every­thing our pro­fes­sion stands for, and is actu­al­ly against the law.” In an op-ed in The Virginian-Pilot on the eve of a veto ses­sion in which the Virginia state leg­is­la­ture will con­sid­er the secre­cy pro­pos­al, Edloe wrote: ​“Medicines are made to save lives, not end them. They’re not designed, or test­ed, to kill peo­ple.” Edloe…

Jul 18, 2003

NEW VOICES: Leading Forensic Scientist Calls For Halt to Executions Because of Faulty DNA Testing

An edi­to­r­i­al by Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, past pres­i­dent of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, notes that crime labs are over­whelm­ing­ly back­logged with work and that defi­cien­cies of per­son­nel, space and equip­ment in foren­sic sci­ence labs often lead to shod­dy prac­tices and erro­neous test results, as recent­ly exem­pli­fied by the prob­lems uncov­ered at the Houston Police Department DNA lab (see below). Dr. Wecht notes:

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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May 16, 2016

Pfizer Announces Restrictions to Keep States From Using Its Medicines in Executions

On May 13, the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny Pfizer announced that it would impose strict dis­tri­b­u­tion con­trols to block states from obtain­ing and using its med­i­cines in exe­cu­tions. In a state­ment, the com­pa­ny said, ​“Pfizer makes its prod­ucts to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. Consistent with these val­ues, Pfizer strong­ly objects to the use of its prod­ucts as lethal injec­tions for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” With Pfizer’s announce­ment, every major phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny that pro­duces drugs that have been used in lethal injec­tions has voiced oppo­si­tion to involve­ment in executions.…

Policy Issues

International

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New Voices

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May 23, 2023

The Lancet Editorial: Physician Involvement in Executions Violates Medical Ethics

A May 20, 2023 edi­to­r­i­al in a lead­ing med­ical aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nal con­cludes that physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions ​“goes against the eth­i­cal foun­da­tion of the physi­cian’s role” and argues that doc­tors and med­ical asso­ci­a­tions should oppose cap­i­tal punishment.