Lawyers: Firing squad must be option for condemned killer

The idea may seem jarring Attorneys for a at first: Creating safe spaces where condemned killer whose execution drug users can shoot up under the was stopped last year after 25 minutes watchful eye of staff trained in helping of unsuccessful needle sticks are once counter the effect of potentially fatal again recommending the firing squad overdoses, all with the approval of as an alternative. public health officials. The execution could also proceed if But the terrible toll taken by the the state adopts a closely regulated lethal state’s opioid battle in recent years injection process that includes a has prompted some lawmakers, activists headpiece to monitor the brain activity and medical groups to endorse of death row inmate Alva Campbell the idea of “supervised injection sites” and medicine to revive him if the lethal as another way to reduce overdose drugs don’t work, attorneys said deaths. in a court filing earlier this month. Among those skeptical is Republican Without these measures, Campbell’s Gov. Charlie Baker, who said he execution would involve “a sure or doesn’t see the sites as gateways to very likely risk of serious harm in the treatment. form of severe, needless physical pain At a public hearing Tuesday about and suffering,” Campbell’s federal public a bill he filed to help ease the state’s defenders said in the Jan. 4 filing. opioid abuse crisis, Baker was asked Campbell, 59, was sentenced to die about the possibility of the sites, something for fatally shooting an 18-year-old man not included in his legislation. in a 1997 carjacking. The Massachusetts Medical Society The state unsuccessfully tried to execute and the Massachusetts Hospital Association Campbell on Nov. 15 in the state back the idea. death chamber at the Southern Ohio — The Associated Press Correctional Facility in Lucasville.