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EMT board ducks death-penalty flap

The Ohio EMS board has no authority over the emergency medical technicians who administer lethal drugs in state executions. That's the opinion board lawyer Heather R. Frient made public yesterday during the board's meeting. Board members asked Frient to determine whether these technicians were under their jurisdiction. Under state law, intermediate EMTs are not authorized to work with these drugs. But these technicians are an exception, Frient said. "They do not appear to be acting as EMTs in the performance of their execution duties," she wrote in the opinion. The issue was first brought up by Dr. Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon at Nationwide Children's Hospital and former board member. Groner said his concern was prompted by the testimony of two intermediate EMTs in a federal case filed by an Ohio Death Row inmate challenging lethal injection...continue to full post

Full post as published by Lethal Injection on August 21, 2009 (boomark / email).