U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg, who has been over­see­ing the chal­lenge to Maryland​’s lethal injec­tion process filed by death row inmate Vernon Evans, has stat­ed that he might direct state cor­rec­tions offi­cials to ​“test the recruit­ment waters” in search of doc­tors or high­ly trained nurs­es to par­tic­i­pate in state exe­cu­tions before he rules on whether to require the med­ical pro­fes­sion­als’ involve­ment. The judge has held exten­sive hear­ings over nine days with nation­al experts tes­ti­fy­ing about some of the prob­lems iden­ti­fied with Maryland’s exe­cu­tion process.

​“I could see writ­ing an opin­ion that says the state can’t find any­one, and if they can’t find any­one, they’re per­fect­ly enti­tled to use para­pro­fes­sion­als,” Legg told the lawyers dur­ing their clos­ing argu­ments in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. ​“But I can also see writ­ing an opin­ion that if they’re rel­a­tive­ly easy to come by and don’t charge too much … the bur­den on the state isn’t too high.“

The present exe­cu­tion team in Maryland con­sists of a doc­tor who pro­nounces the death of the inmate, a nurs­ing assis­tant who over­sees place­ment of IVs in the con­demned inmate’s arms, and prison employ­ees who pre­pare and admin­is­ter the dos­es of the three lethal injec­tion drugs. The state main­tains that the exe­cu­tion process is not a med­ical pro­ce­dure and so doc­tors should not be required.

Similar chal­lenges to the lethal injec­tion process are under way in oth­er states. A rul­ing from a fed­er­al District Court in California is expect­ed soon regard­ing that state’s pro­ce­dures.
(Baltimore Sun, Nov. 16, 2006). See Lethal Injection and Methods of Execution.

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