Easley urged to halt executions

A death row inmate's attorneys ask the governor to follow Jeb Bush's lead in Florida

Lawyers for a death row inmate to be executed next month called Wednesday for Gov. Mike Easley to halt all executions as concerns about the same method of lethal injection used in North Carolina derailed the death penalty in two other states.

Last week, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended executions after it took 34 minutes for an inmate to die. Prison officials had failed to inject the lethal chemicals into his veins, but rather injected them into soft tissue.

On Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered his administration to fix problems with lethal injection after a federal judge ruled the state's method did not protect inmates from experiencing cruel and unusual punishment.

"North Carolina follows the same formula as Florida and California," Wilmington lawyer Geoffrey Hosford said at a news conference. "That same danger exists here in North Carolina."

Hosford and Shallotte lawyer Michael Ramos represent Marcus Robinson, 33, who was sentenced to death for the 1991 shooting of Erik Tornblom in Cumberland County. Robinson's co-defendant, Roderick Williams Jr., shot Tornblom in the face with a sawed-off shotgun. The two men then stole Tornblom's wallet and car.

In North Carolina, inmates are executed with a series of three chemicals. The first chemical is sodium pentothal, a barbiturate intended to put the inmate to sleep. The second chemical is pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the body. The final chemical is potassium chloride, which at high dosages stops the heart.

Critics say the first chemical doesn't fully sedate inmates before they are given paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs but rather leaves them awake to experience agonizing deaths.

In response to a legal challenge earlier this year, North Carolina prison officials started using a brain wave monitor to determine an inmate's level of consciousness before the other drugs are administered. The machine satisfied a federal judge, who allowed an execution to go forward in April.

Critics say the machine was not intended for this purpose.

David Work, former executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy and a death penalty opponent, said he thinks North Carolina's method of execution is inhumane.

Work said he experienced an injection of potassium chloride five years ago after heart bypass surgery, a standard treatment for replacing potassium in the body.

The injection was so painful that Work said he screamed until the nurse pulled out the needle. "I liken it to putting an electric wire in your artery," he said.

It can only be worse for an inmate who receives a dose hundreds of times larger than the one he did, Work reasoned.

Renee Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Easley, has said Easley has not received a request from Robinson's lawyers to halt executions.

Keith Acree, a spokesman for the state prison system, said that Marvin Polk, warden at Central Prison, which houses the death chamber, was not aware of any difficulty accessing an inmate's veins during the 31 executions he has overseen.

Since 1984, North Carolina has executed 43 inmates -- almost all by lethal injection. Two chose gas, but that is no longer an option.

Two other death row inmates have pending federal lawsuits challenging the state's method of execution.