He said in an interview this week that as the inmates died just a few feet away, he did not monitor their level of consciousness, and prison officials never asked him to, despite a federal judge's order requiring that.

The question of whether Dr. Obi Umesi can stand in the observation room with a heart monitor and brain-wave monitor and not track a dying man's vital signs is at the center of a legal dilemma that has delayed five executions in this state.

If Umesi monitored the dying man's consciousness, he might have violated his profession's ethical rules.

If he did not, the state would be violating the judge's order.

State lawyers indicated that they would dispute Umesi's comments. After his Monday interview, the state Attorney General's Office, which represents prison officials, released a 188-page deposition he gave Dec. 1. In it, Umesi said he looked at the brain-wave monitor and viewed its readings.

"Technically, they are in the same room as the monitors," said Umesi's lawyer, Robert Clay of Raleigh. "They are specifically not looking at the monitors."

Umesi said Monday that his only duty was to be present and he did not violate his ethics.

"I would not participate in an execution," Umesi said. "I would not voluntarily take a life."

Umesi's decision to speak publicly and the release of his deposition, part of federal litigation about the state's lethal injection procedures, have pierced the secrecy that surrounds executions.

A state law protects the identities of those at executions. The deposition of Umesi protected his identity, referring to him only as "Team Member 3" and was taken over the telephone equipped with a voice-altering device. The Attorney General's Office released a copy of the deposition and Noelle Talley, the agency's spokeswoman, identified Umesi as "Team Member 3."

Umesi, 50, is a contract physician with the prison system who works 12-hour evening shifts at Central Prison on Thursdays, when executions occur. He has been Wake County's jail doctor since 1991. Public records show Umesi has certified condemned inmates' deaths since 2003 and has been present at more executions than any other doctor -- at least 18 of the past 20.

Before the past few executions, Umesi said, he waited in the warden's office until someone brought him an EKG printout and a death certificate filled out except for his signature. He said he certified the inmates' deaths without ever seeing the inmates' bodies. Two other doctors who have done execution duty in interviews described a similar routine.

In April, U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard allowed the execution of killer Willie Brown to proceed. But he said a doctor must watch a brain-wave monitor to ensure that Brown was fully sedated before being injected with paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs.

A lawsuit had questioned whether inmates were conscious when injected with the fatal drugs.

Brown and Samuel R. Flippen were executed last year under that order.

For the past few executions, Umesi said, Warden Marvin Polk asked him to move closer to the second-floor death chamber. Umesi said he stood on the back wall of an observation room, unable to clearly see the brain-wave and heart-rate monitors or the inmate on a gurney.

Umesi said the warden did not ask him to do anything else. "He asked nothing more than being present," Umesi said.

Asked whether he looked at either the brain-wave monitor or the heart-rate monitor, Umesi said: "I would not be observing those."

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