Professor Ty Alper of the Boalt School of Law at Berkeley has writ­ten an arti­cle for the forth­com­ing edi­tion of the North Carolina Law Review enti­tled ​“The Truth About Physician Participation in Lethal Injection Executions.” Prof. Alper, a not­ed death penal­ty expert, reviews the avail­able research and recent lit­i­ga­tion on the most wide­ly used method of exe­cu­tion in the U.S., focus­ing espe­cial­ly on the poten­tial role of doc­tors in exe­cu­tions. As states are chal­lenged to ensure that inmates do not suf­fer excru­ci­at­ing pain dur­ing lethal injec­tions, Alper con­tends that physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion is more plau­si­ble than many states are will­ing to admit. He states that many doc­tors are will­ing to and, in fact, do reg­u­lar­ly par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions. He argues that defense attor­neys are oblig­at­ed to pro­tect their clients from unnec­ces­sary pain and that states have exag­ger­at­ed their inabil­i­ty to find will­ing doc­tors. The arti­cle may be found here.

(T. Alper, ​“The Truth About Physician Participation in Lethal Injection Executions,” North Carolina Law Review, 2009 (forth­com­ing)). See Law Reviews and Lethal Injection.

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