North Carolina medical board can’t discipline execution doctors: judge News
North Carolina medical board can’t discipline execution doctors: judge

[JURIST] The North Carolina Medical Board [official website] does not have the authority to discipline doctors that participate in state death penalty [JURIST news archive] procedures, a state judge ruled [PDF text] Friday. Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens held that state requirements that a physician be in attendance during the lethal injection execution of condemned inmates trump a medical board policy [policy statement] that forbids doctors from participating in executions. Under North Carolina law, a doctor must monitor the condemned prisoner's vital signs and stop the execution if he seems to be suffering. State medical board rules allow doctors to be present, but prohibit any direct involvement in the actual execution.

The North Carolina State Department of Corrections [official website] in March filed [JURIST report] a lawsuit against the medical board, alleging that the board's policy prevents it from carrying out the death penalty [JURIST news archive]. In January, Stephens blocked two executions [JURIST report] when doctors refused to participate after the policy shift. The News & Observer has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

Last public execution at Tyburn Gallows in London

On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

Learn more about the trial of John Austin.