RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A judge on Friday delayed a third execution in North Carolina, again saying that the state first needed to decide the role that doctors play in carrying out death sentences.
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens signed a preliminary injunction Friday afternoon delaying the Feb. 9 execution of James Adolph Campbell, 45, who was convicted of killing a woman in 1993.
On Thursday, the judge had delayed the executions of Marcus Reymond Robinson, 33, who was scheduled to die at 2 a.m. Friday, and James Edward Thomas, 51, who was set to die next week.
State law requires a doctor's presence at executions, but last week the North Carolina Medical Board decided that any participation by a physician violated medical ethics.
The state decided a nurse and medical technician would monitor condemned inmates' vital signs as they die by lethal injection. If a problem arose requiring the doctor to intervene, officials would stop the execution, allowing the physician to take part without violating the medical board's ethics policy.
Citing a law passed in 1909, Stephens said such a change in the state's process for imposing a death sentence requires approval of the governor and other statewide elected officials.