The Council of State won't budge on its approval of the state's revised execution protocol.
Attorneys for the council responded Monday to a group of five condemned inmates who appealed the council's approval of the protocol. Attorneys with the N.C. Department of Justice filed the response in Wake Superior Court, Titan Barksdale reports.
The inmates have said the council's approval in February 2007 was improper because it didn't hear from their attorneys first.
The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, added that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol.
"Injury only occurs if the execution protocol is improperly implemented," the council's response said.
More after the jump.
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Like most states, North Carolina uses a three-drug combination, the first to render unconsciousness, the second to paralyze all muscles except the heart, and the third to stop the heart.
The Council of State took up the protocol issue after Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens decided a nearly 100-year-old law requires the council to approve changes to North Carolina's method of execution.
The council decided that a physician must monitor a condemned inmate's "essential body functions" and tell the warden of Central Prison if the inmate shows signs of suffering.
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