Physicians Must Honor Refusal of Treatment to Restore Competency by Non-Dangerous Inmates on Death Row

Claude Maturana website, available at <http://www.ccadp.org/claudematurana.htm> (last visited September 22, 2010). An inmate named Claude Maturana in Arizona was found incompetent to be executed. After every last medical professional in the state refused to treat Mr. Maturana's schizophrenia, the state conducted a nationwide search, and found a doctor who was willing to state he was competent even though Maturana thought he was already dead. Maturana escaped the death chamber; he died in 2002 during an operation while still in prison.

Ford v. Wainwright , 477 U.S. 399 (1986).

Olfson M. Marcus S. C. Wilk J. , “Awareness of Illness and Nonadherence to Antipsychotic Medications among Persons with Schizophrenia,” Psychiatric Services 57, no. 2 (2006): 205–211.

Rogers v. Okin , 478 F.Supp. 1342, (Mass. 1979).

Department of Mental Health regulations provide that a committed person to a mental hospital shall receive treatment and rehabilitation in accordance with accepted therapeutic practice, including oral, subcutaneous, and intramuscular medication when appropriate and when ordered by a physician. However, electroconvulsive treatment and lobotomy require separate consent by the patient pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 123, §23. Mass. Dept. Mental Health Reg. §220.02

Rogers v. Okin , 478 F. Supp 1342 (1979); Rogers v. Okin, 634 F.2d 650 (1980); Okin v. Rogers, 451 U.S. 906 (1981); Mills v. Rogers, 457 U.S. 291 (1982); Rogers v. Okin, 738 F2d 1 (1984).

Breneman D. , “Forcible Antipsychotic Medication and the Unfortunate Side Effects of Sell v. United States” 539 U.S. 166, 123 S. Ct 2174 (2003), Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 27, no. 3 (2004): 965–984.

Ford v. Wainwright 477 U.S. 399 (1986).

Ford v. Wainwright 477 U.S. 399 at 422.

Panetti v. Quarterman 551 US 930 (2007), The prisoner's severe delusions could have rendered him incompetent to be executed even though he could identify the stated reason for his execution. Thus, the prisoner's submission that his documented delusions prevented him from comprehending the meaning and purpose of the punishment to which he had been sentenced should have been considered.

Code of Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, Current Opinions and Annotations, 2010–2011 Edition AMA Press.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) also forbids its members from participating in lethal injection directly or indirectly, in a revised and expanded policy passed in 2010, available at <http://www.nursingworld.org/EthicsHumanRights> (last visited September 22, 2010).

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA), representing osteopathic physicians in the U.S., “deems it an unethical act for any osteopathic physician to deliver or be required to deliver a lethal injection for the purpose of execution in capital crimes.” American Osteopathic association (AOA), Position Paper: Executions in Capital Crimes, Chicago, 2000.

Harper v. State , 759 P 2d 358 (1988).

Washington v. Harper , 494 US 210 (1990).

Id., at 231.

Id., at 224.

504 U.S. 127 (1992).

Id., at 135.

Id., at 135.

Id., at 138.

Id., at 142 ( Kennedy J. , concurring).

Id., at 139 ( Kennedy J. , concurring).

539 U.S. 166 (2003).

Id., at 169.

Id., at 179.

Id., at 180.

Louisiana v. Perry , 610 So. 2d. 746 (1992).

Fred Singleton v. State , 313 S.C 75 (1993).

Singleton v. State , 437 S.E. 2d 53 at 61 (1993) noting the opposition being based on the causal relationship between the administration of the drug and the execution.

Singleton v. Norris , 319 F3d 1018 (2003).

Zonana H. , “Competency to Be Executed and Forced Medication: Singleton v. Norris,” Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 31, no. 3 (2003): 372–376.

See Singleton v. Norris, supra note 35, at 1036.

Amicus Brief in Support of Petitioner, Perry v. Louisiana, 610 So. 2d 746 (La. 1992).

Sands P. , Torture Team (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

“August 1, 2002 John Yoo memo / First May 10, 2005 Steven Bradbury memo / Second May 10, 2005 Steven Bradbury memo / May 30, 2005 Steven Bradbury memo,” available at <http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/16/the-torture-memos/> (last visited September 23, 2010).

ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody, February 2007, available at <http://www.nybooks.com/media/doc/2010/04/22/icrc-report.pdf> (last visited September 22, 2010).

Farber N. Aboff B. M. Weiner J. Davis E. B. Boyer E. G. Ubel P. A. , “Physicians' Willingness to Paticipate in the Process of Lethal Injection for Capital Punishment,” Annals Internal Medicine 135, no. 10 (2001): 884–890.

Baze v. Rees 128 S. Ct. 1520 at 1526 (2008).

Baum K. , “To Comfort Always”: Physician Participation in Executions,” New York University Journal of Leglislation & Public Policy 5, no. 1 (2001–2002): 47–82, at 52. See also Clark P. , “Physician Participation in Executions: Care Giver or Executioner,” Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics 34, no. 1 (2006): 95–104.

Associated Press, “In Moon Suits Florida Doctors Carry Out Executions,” August 28, 2007, available at <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20484588/> (last visited September 23, 2010).

Black L. Sade R. M. , “Lethal Injections and Physicians,” JAMA 298, no. 23 (2007): 2779–2781, at 2781.

North Carolina Department of Corrections v. North Carolina Medical Board, 675 S.E.2d 641 (2009).

Gawande A. , “When Law and Ethics Collide-Why Physicians Participate in Executions,” New England Journal of Medicine 354, no. 12 (March 23, 2006): 1221–1229.

Groner J. , “Lethal Injection: A Stain on the Face of Medicine,” BMJ 325, no. 371 (November 2, 2002): 1026–1028.

Lafleur W. R. Bohme G. Shimazono S. , eds., Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2007): At 259.