Death Row Anesthesiologist Wanted

ST. LOUIS —  Two days after a federal judge ordered Missouri to revamp its execution procedures, the state’s corrections chief says it is difficult to land one key component: a board-certified anesthesiologist to assist in lethal injections.

Department Director Larry Crawford said Wednesday that his office was meeting resistance from anesthesiologists wary of crossing an ethical line.

He has solicited help from 37 other states that also use a series of three intravenously injected drugs to execute prisoners strapped to a gurney.

“We will cast our net as wide as we need to, to see if we can comply,” Crawford said. “We haven’t been successful yet, and it doesn’t look promising that we can find anyone willing to do it.”

The Death Penalty Information Center says no other state has been required to employ such involvement by an anesthesiologist.

“It’s one thing to say a doctor should be present. It’s another to say you shall be present,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit organization. “It isn’t being done anywhere else.”

The judge’s order Monday is the first high-level, definitive ruling of what has to be changed in a state’s lethal injection protocol, Dieter said.

Ruling in the case of death row inmate Michael Taylor, U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. ordered the state to make sweeping changes to its execution protocol by July 15. He halted executions until he could be satisfied that Missouri’s procedures posed no risk of unnecessary pain and suffering.

In February, the American Society of Anesthesiologists issued a statement saying it supported the American Medical Assn.’s position that doctors should not directly or indirectly participate in executions.