by Playfuls Staff |
30th July 2006
The doctor whose testimony halted lethal injections in Missouri never wrote down the injection protocol and sometimes changed it, it was reported Sunday. [more]
Dr. Alan R. Doerhoff, 62 -- whose identity had been kept secret -- devised and supervised the state's lethal-injection procedure for executions, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
He testified from behind a screen about himself and the lethal-injection procedure using terms so troubling, a federal judge ordered the procedure halted.
Doerhoff, who is dyslexic, testified that he didn't write down the injection protocol and made the changes in it on his "independent authority," the newspaper said.
He has been barred from two Missouri hospitals and Doerhoff, who told the judge he sometimes confused names of drugs, has been sued for malpractice more than 20 times, by his own estimate. He was publicly reprimanded in 2003 by the Missouri Board of Healing Arts for failing to disclose malpractice suits to a hospital where he was treating patients.
The revelations came as states across the country have put executions by lethal injection on hold until questions about how the procedure is carried out can be resolved.
© 2006 UPI
