For Immediate Release
June 29, 2007

Statement for STARVIN' FOR JUSTICE 2007; THE 14TH ANNUAL
FAST AND VIGIL TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY AT THE U.S. SUPREME COURT


Physician asks US medical professional
organizations to call for abolition of capital punishment

Contact information:  Jonathan I. Groner MD, Associate Professor of Clinical
Surgery at The Ohio State University School of Medicine Office
phone:  614-722-3919
Cellular Phone:  614-204-1824
Email:  gronerj@chi.osu.edu


“There have been over 1080 victims of judicial killing in the United States since
capital punishment was re-legalized in 1976:   2 were shot by high powered rifles,
3 were hung, 11 were asphyxiated with poisonous cyanide gas, 153 were shocked by
high voltage electric current, and 913 were killed with intravenous overdoses of
anesthetic medications and paralyzing drugs..

“Each of these methods  -- firing squad, gallows, gas chamber, electric chair,
and lethal injection -- has been touted as “humane.”  None of these methods has
been determined to be “cruel and unusual” by the United States Supreme Court.
Yet firing squad executions are violently bloody, hangings sometimes cause
decapitation, gas chamber victims have writhed and moaned in agony, and the
electric chair has set some of its victims on fire.  Thus, these execution methods
have fallen out of favor, and lethal injection has become the standard method of
execution in the United States.

“The first lethal injection occurred in 1982.  The death chamber looked like a
hospital room.  The victim appeared to painlessly fall asleep and die.   However,
after over 900 lethal injections, it is overwhelming clear that these executions
can and do go horribly awry.  These executions have taken up to two hours to
complete.  Some inmates have been executed twice (after the first round of drugs
failed); some have been tortured relentlessly with needles during attempts to
start IVs, some have had surgical procedures performed (while awake) to place IVs,
and some have suffered excruciating pain due to IV needles inserted backwards or
needles that missed the veins entirely.  And some inmates – no one knows how
many -- may have suffocated while awake due to lethal injection’s use of a muscle
paralyzing drug.

“Attempts to make lethal injection more palatable have involved bringing more
medical technology and expertise to the death chamber, including brain wave
monitors, surgeons to place central lines, and even judges requesting that
anesthesiologists supervise executions.  In fact, although their identity is
seldom revealed (and sometimes concealed behind a mask) physicians are present
at nearly every lethal injection execution.

“The fact is that, even with a physician present, there is no such thing as a
humane execution.  There will never be a technique that painlessly, instantly,
bloodlessly, and reliably ends a life.  The presence of physicians and medical
equipment in the death chamber does not make executions more acceptable.  Indeed,
the use of doctors on the execution team is eerily reminiscent of the program in
Nazi Germany that used doctors to execute physically and mentally disabled citizens.
That program’s chief administrator justified killing by saying that “the syringe
belongs in the hand of a physician.”

“Just as the Nazi killing programs corrupted German physicians, lethal injection
has become a stain on the face of medicine in the United States.  Lethal injection
has inextricably linked the medical community to killing, defiling not only those
medical professionals who -- against the ethical guidelines of their professional
organizations -- choose to participate, but it defiles the entire medical community
as well.

“On the 35th anniversary of the Furman decision, it is time for physicians and
medical professional organizations in the United States to call for the abolition
of capital punishment.”