By Fred Charatan, Florida

A newly elected state governor, a doctor, has been criticised by a group of medical students for signing a prisoner's death warrant, because guidelines from the American Medical Association say that doctors should not actively take part in executions or do anything that "would directly cause the death of the condemned." The case is causing a furore, partly because the governor is a doctor and partly because the prisoner is thought to have an IQ of only 74.

Republican governor Ernest Fletcher last month signed the death warrant of convicted murderer Thomas Bowling, aged 51. The execution by lethal injection was scheduled for 30 November but was postponed when a circuit court and Kentucky Supreme Court both issued stays of execution. Mr Bowling's lawyer, Susan Balliet, had raised questions about the constitutionality of Kentucky's method of execution, which is by giving intravenously 2 g of pentobarbital.

The case also raises questions about the legality of executing someone who has a low IQ and learning difficulties. Mr Bowling, who was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence of shooting to death the husband and wife owners of a dry cleaning business outside their store in 1990, had an IQ of 74 at the age 14, and had to repeat ninth grade in school three times.

The US Supreme Court ruled in June 2002 that states cannot execute people who are "mentally retarded," but did not define mental retardation.

It is the guidelines of the American Medical Association regarding medical ethics, however, which are being used against Dr Fletcher by a group of medical students at the University of Kentucky. They have called upon the governor, who earned his medical degree at the University of Kentucky in 1968, and is still licensed as a doctor in the state, to uphold medical ethics.

The association's guidelines say that doctors should not actively take part in an execution or take any "action which would directly cause the death of the condemned" or "which would assist, supervise or contribute" to the death of the inmate. Under state law, doctors licensed in Kentucky are required to follow the association's ethical guidelines, according to the Medical Licensure Board.

Executive counsel John Roach, however, said that the governor did not violate association guidelines or other ethical standards. "By signing a death warrant, in no way is Governor Ernest Fletcher participating in the conduct of an execution," Roach said. "Governor Fletcher's role under the law is consistent with the roles of judges fulfilling their legal duty and jurors fulfilling their legal obligations regardless of their professions."

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