news-record.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina prison officials say that despite a Supreme Court ruling that sweeps away a state medical board policy, executions won't immediately resume because of a pending legal challenge.

The high court ruled Friday that the state medical board overstepped its authority when it threatened to punish doctors who are present during executions.

But prison officials said another case involving the state's execution policy is pending. That means a legal morass surrounding a doctor's role in executions that has effectively put executions on hold for the past two years remains untangled.

The pending case involves a protocol approved by a panel of elected state officials for carrying out lethal injections in North Carolina. The protocol calls for a doctor to be present to ensure an inmate doesn't suffer.

Medical Board spokeswoman Jean Fisher Brinkly said simply, "We were not successful."

Lawyers for the state argued that a doctor should monitor an execution to prevent cruel or unusual punishment. But the medical board and the American Medical Association said state lawmakers wanted a doctor to be present but not actively participate.

The court ruled 4-3 that state law "by its plain language, envisions physician participation in executions in some professional capacity."

The ruling also said the Medical Board ethics position statement "directly contravenes the specific requirement of physician presence. ... because the position statement is an invalid exercise of defendant's statutory powers, we affirm the decision of the trial court."

Three justices, including Chief Justice Sara Parker, said in a joint dissent that the matter should be decided by the Legislature. The Legislature gave the Medical Board authority to discipline physicians and the ethics policy is in line with that authority, the dissent said.

The dissenters also said the ethics policy doesn't prohibit a physician from being present and says the board won't impose discipline "for merely being present during an execution."

The halt in executions stems from a 2006 challenge to the use of lethal injection, a method of execution opponents argued is cruel and unusual. A federal judge later said the state must monitor the condemned for signs of pain, and in an attempt to comply, North Carolina altered its procedure for putting an inmate to death.

The change expanded the role a doctor plays in an execution beyond state law, which only requires a physician be present. The state medical board responded by adopting an ethics policy that threatens to punish any doctor who takes part in an execution. In its appeal, the board asked the high court to reverse the Wake Superior Court judge who ruled the board had overstepped its authority.