The same doc­tor who was banned from exe­cu­tions in Missouri has been dis­cov­ered as a par­tic­i­pant in Arizona’s most recent exe­cu­tion. Dr. Alan Doerhoff’s sig­na­ture was at the bot­tom of the EKG tape for Robert Comer, who was exe­cut­ed in 2007. Eight months ear­li­er, Dr. Doerhoff was pro­hib­it­ed from par­tic­i­pat­ing in fur­ther Missouri exe­cu­tions because of ques­tions about his stan­dards and com­pe­tence. Doerhoff had assist­ed in more than 54 exe­cu­tions in Missouri, devel­oped pro­ce­dures, insert­ed catheters, and mon­i­tored pris­on­ers’ con­scious­ness in fed­er­al exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Indiana. According to 2006 court records, he admit­ted under oath to being dyslex­ic, that ​“he ​‘impro­vised’ the dosages of the drugs (part­ly because of how con­ve­nient­ly or incon­ve­nient­ly they were pack­aged), had no set pro­to­col and kept no records of pro­ce­dures.” The hearing’s judge pro­hib­it­ed Doerhoff from par­tic­i­pat­ing ​“in any man­ner, at any lev­el” in Missouri’s lethal-injec­tion process. Prior to this rul­ing, Doerhoff had been sued for mal­prac­tice 20 times, paid sev­er­al set­tle­ments, and was offi­cial­ly rep­ri­mand­ed by the Missouri Board of Healing Arts for not dis­clos­ing mal­prac­tice suits to a hos­pi­tal where he prac­ticed. He was sub­se­quent­ly barred from prac­tic­ing in some hos­pi­tals.

The tech­niques that Doerhoff devel­oped appear to have influ­enced Arizona’s new exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures, includ­ing a com­plex prac­tice of admin­is­ter­ing the lethal chem­i­cals through a catheter in the groin instead of an arm, pos­si­bly lead­ing to high­er risks of error and undue suf­fer­ing. Such a tech­nique appears to be unique to juris­dic­tions where Doerhoff par­tic­i­pat­ed in exe­cu­tions. When the Arizona Department of Corrections was ques­tioned about Doerhoff’s par­tic­i­pa­tion, they denied any asso­ci­a­tion with the doc­tor. When media rep­re­sen­ta­tives showed proof of Doerhoff’s sig­na­ture on the exe­cu­tion doc­u­ments, the Corrections offi­cials cit­ed statutes that pro­tect the iden­ti­ty of Arizona exe­cu­tion­ers. Arizona is still fight­ing peti­tions in court to reveal infor­ma­tion about their exe­cu­tion staff. Experts say that Doerhoff tech­niques are over­ly com­plex and prone to error. Despite being pro­hib­it­ed from par­tic­i­pat­ing in Missouri exe­cu­tions, Dr. Doerhoff is still legal­ly per­mit­ted to par­tic­i­pate and influ­ence oth­er state and fed­er­al exe­cu­tions.
(M. Kiefer, ​“Doctor banned from exe­cu­tions in Mo. now in Ariz.,” The Arizona Republic, July 24, 2008). See Executions.

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