Published: Wed, Apr. 11, 2007 12:30AM

Modified Wed, Apr. 11, 2007 02:47AM

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In fact, the N.C. Nurses Association doesn't prohibit nurses from being involved in executions. In 2003, the state association rescinded its ethics policy that barred nurses from playing a role in executions. The association now leaves the decision up to the individual nurse while opposing prison officials requiring nurses to participate in executions as part of their jobs. However, Tina Gordon, the association's executive director, said the issue has been referred to its commission on standards and professional practice, which next meets April 30.

State law does not require a nurse's presence at executions. However, court records and deposition testimony by prison officials indicate that at least two nurses have been present at each of the past several executions. One of the nurses is responsible for monitoring the inmate's consciousness on a brain-wave monitor. A federal judge allowed two executions to go forward last year if state officials had a doctor and a nurse monitor the inmates' consciousness to ensure the inmate was fully sedated before being injected with paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs.

Last week, Dr. Obi Umesi, the doctor who attended the most recent two executions, said he never monitored the inmates' consciousness or the brain-wave monitor. Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk indicated a nurse, not the doctor, was responsible for tracking the inmate's consciousness on the brain-wave monitor.

One of the nurses who wrote to the nursing board, Sue Guptill of Durham, questioned whether nurses were qualified for that responsibility.

"I do not believe that anything in the preparation of nurses qualifies us to determine whether a person is adequately sedated so as not to suffer while being executed," Guptill wrote, "nor do I know of any training or experience which adequately qualifies a nurse to make this determination."