Lethal Injection on Trial

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For now the Supreme Court is unlikely to weigh in on whether doctors should be involved in lethal injections. The Florida case addresses only the narrower issue of what type of appeals inmates can file against this form of punishment. Some, however, are worried less about botched injections and more about what it will mean when we finally do perfect the art of execution. Father John Giuliani witnessed a textbook execution--overseen by a physician--when serial killer Michael Ross was put to death in Connecticut in May 2005. "The most chilling thing was its perfection. Just a slight twitch of an artery, and silence," he says. "Like nobody was dying."