Friday, September 29, 2006

The Executioner's Song

The San Francisco Chronicle and a host of other press sources are reporting on the conflicting expert testimony in hearings before U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel on California's lethal injection procedures. Yesterday, an anesthesiologist testified that the state has new procedures, which, if followed, should eliminate any significant possibility of a gratuitously painful execution.

It has occurred to us to wonder whether such physician testimony on execution methods is consistent with the AMA's ethical guidelines on physician involvement in executions. Among other things, those guidelines prohibit "rendering of technical advice regarding execution."

posted by pn at 6:12 PM  

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.