NEW YORK, 9 GEN - Dopo avere perso per un solo voto il diritto al rinvio dell'esecuzione, Raymond Rowsey, 32 anni, e' stato messo a morte, la scorsa notte, per avere ucciso, nel 1992, una commessa, durante una rapina.

Prima dell'esecuzione, Rowsey ha potuto abbracciare per la prima, e ultima, volta la figlia di 11 anni, nata quando lui era gia' in prigione.

E' stata la prima esecuzione dell'anno nella Nord Carolina, la terza negli Stati Uniti (le precedenti in Texas e nell'Arkansas). I legali di Rowsey hanno sostenuto, di fronte alla Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti, che l'iniezione letale, cosi' come praticata nello Stato, e' una forma di punizione ''crudele e inusuale'', proibita dalla Costituzione degli Stati Uniti, perche' causa dolore a chi la subisce.

Argomentazioni di questo genere hanno gia' fatto breccia nella Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti. Ma questa volta, con un solo voto di margine, i giudici supremi non hanno accordato il rinvio richiesto.

Rowsey is put to death -- Easley denies clemency after high court lifts stay

Convicted murderer Raymond Dayle Rowsey was put to death early today, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a judge's stay of his execution. The ruling ended a week of litigation over the legality of North Carolina's method of lethal injection.

Gov. Mike Easley denied Rowsey's clemency request late Thursday, clearing the way for his execution minutes after 2 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh. Rowsey, 32, was sentenced to die for the 1992 shooting death of Burlington convenience store clerk Howard Sikorski.

The Supreme Court's order, issued about 7:50 p.m. Thursday by a 5-4 vote, did not address the substance of a federal lawsuit that Rowsey and 3 other death row inmates filed Jan. 2.

The lawsuit argued that North Carolina's method of lethal injection risks killing people while they're awake, so it's cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional.

In 1998, the state made lethal injection its only form of execution -- eliminating lethal gas as an option -- because it was considered more humane than the gas chamber, the electric chair and other methods.

Rowsey's lawsuit was part of a national surge in scrutiny of how states execute convicted murderers. It involves medical science and legal ethics and, ultimately, the question of whether any form of capital punishment is adequately humane.

No court has ruled on the merits of the criticism of North Carolina's lethal-injection method. Inmates are likely to continue raising the same objection to the execution drugs. Similar lawsuits are under way in Virginia, Texas, Tennessee and Ohio.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle ordered the state Wednesday not to execute Rowsey while federal courts decided whether they could consider the lawsuit.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which has jurisdiction over North Carolina, left the stay in place Thursday afternoon. It also put Rowsey's case on hold, pending the outcome of another case like it from Alabama that awaits action in the Supreme Court.

But the state appealed immediately to the Supreme Court, which overruled Boyle and the 4th Circuit. Voting to lift the stay were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Voting to leave the stay intact were Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

The legal issue was whether lawsuits like Rowsey's constitute a repetitive appeal of the death sentence, which federal law prohibits; or a different kind of legal challenge, alleging a government violation of a constitutional right, that can go forward.

The state's lawyers argued to the Supreme Court that a stay for Rowsey "would have the predictable effect of causing every death row inmate in a lethal-injection state to file similar frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to bring about a de facto moratorium on the death penalty."

Execution method

During the day Thursday, Rowsey visited with his lawyers and relatives, The Associated Press reported. He was able to hold his 11-year-old daughter for the 1st time since he entered prison. On previous visits, prison bars and glass separated them.

North Carolina, like most states with the death penalty, uses a combination of 3 drugs to execute convicted murderers. One puts the inmate to sleep, the 2nd stops the heart, and the 3rd stops the inmate's breathing by paralyzing his muscles.

Executioners administer double doses of the anesthetic and the heart-stopper, for a total of 5 injections, one after the other, in IV lines of saline in each arm.

The inmate, who has been strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber, is checked for vital signs and declared dead 5 minutes after his heart stops.

But the inmates' lawyers say the anesthetic could wear off before the drugs that stop the heart and lungs cause death. The dying inmate could wake up in intense pain but paralyzed and unable to communicate his distress or even open his eyes, they say.

Lawyers for the state said that is baseless speculation.

"There is no credible argument that lethal injection is cruel or unusual punishment," Steven Arbogast, a special deputy attorney general, wrote in the state's filing with the Supreme Court.

The "massive dosage" of the drugs involved, including enough of each of the heart-stopper and the lung-stopper to kill someone, ensures that the method works as intended, the filing said.

A deadly cocktail

The drugs used in executions were developed for medical use. The American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Medical Association oppose doctors participating in executions.

The executioners at Central Prison are not doctors. Critics question whether they have adequate expertise to prepare or administer correct doses.

The muscle relaxer pancuronium bromide, critics charge, might mask intense pain experienced by inmates who are conscious. Too little research into the effects of the drug combinations has been pursued, they say.

In an affidavit in a similar lawsuit in Ohio, Dr. Mark Heath, a Columbia University assistant professor of anesthesiology, spelled it out more dramatically. "If the inmate is not first successfully anesthetized, then it is my opinion ... that the pancuronium will paralyze all voluntary muscles and mask external, physical indications of excruciating pain" caused partly by the heart-stopper, he said.

The trouble is, no one knows. Rowsey's lawyers argued that inmates' pain could go undetected, while also arguing that several inmates in recent years have appeared to struggle as they died.

John Booth, a Duke University assistant professor of anesthesiology, said that given the high doses that North Carolina prison officials say they use, it is quite unlikely that death row inmates feel pain during executions.

"It's extremely likely that they would die before feeling anything," Booth said.

Death-penalty debate

The issue of the state's method of lethal injection has arisen as state lawmakers are considering a 2-year moratorium on executions while they study alleged flaws in the state's death penalty system. The state Senate approved the moratorium last year. The House of Representatives could vote on it this year.

Easley, a former prosecutor and former attorney general and a supporter of the death penalty, has refused to say whether he would veto a moratorium bill.

Rowsey had asked Easley to convert his sentence to life in prison without parole, on the grounds that he suffered abuse during childhood and that one of his trial jurors voted for the death penalty under pressure and meant to vote against it. Easley would not meet with the juror.

Alamance County District Attorney Rob Johnson had urged Easley to let Rowsey's execution go forward. Sikorski's murder -- with three shots to the head, and 3 while he was on the floor -- was particularly brutal, he said.

"I don't think that we ought to forget about the victim," he said.

Easley denied Rowsey clemency shortly before midnight, and Rowsey prepared to die.