Judge: N.C. Must Review Execution Rules

Judge: N.C. Must Review Execution Rules

Thursday August 9, 2007 7:46 PM

By MIKE BAKER

Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A panel of North Carolina's top
officials must reconsider the state's execution protocol
because it failed to hear arguments from lawyers for
inmates and mistakes in approving a revised injection
process, a judge ruled Thursday.

The decision from Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison
offers another victory for the attorneys of death row
inmates, who have pushed the state's lethal injection laws
into a legal tangle that has effectively halted executions
since January.

Those lawyers argued in May that the Council of State -
comprised of the governor, lieutenant governor and eight
other elected officials - failed to consider arguments from
those representing the condemned inmates.

Morrison agreed, writing in his decision that “the essence
of due process is the right to be heard. It was not proper
procedure to consider only documents and comments from
those proposing the protocol and not hear from counsel for
the condemned inmates.”

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