Lawyer of executed inmate to sue North Carolina Dept. of Correction over failure to follow court-ordered lethal-injection protocol / News & Observer renews call for moratorium:  Estes Thompson has this AP report, entitled "Lawyer of executed inmate to sue; Plans for suit follow doctor's revelations." 

AP excerpt:
An attorney for the last inmate executed before the death penalty was effectively placed on hold in North Carolina plans to sue the state after learning a doctor didn't fully monitor his client as he was put to death - as expected by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard allowed the August execution of Samuel R. Flippen to proceed only after he was satisfied that the state Department of Correction planned to have a doctor and a nurse ensure the convicted child killer was fully unconscious before being killed.

"This shows the courts and the public and the North Carolina legislature cannot trust the North Carolina Department of Correction to follow the law and follow court orders in carrying out executions," said Flippen's attorney, Thomas Loflin. "You now cannot accept that they say it was done properly." ...

Loflin said he is considering filing a wrongful death suit against the state. Other attorneys with clients on the state's death row said Friday they were also examining ways to challenge the state after learning about a 218-page deposition given by Marvin Polk, the warden at the prison in Raleigh where North Carolina puts inmates to death. ...

The North Carolina News & Observer has this editorial, entitled "Fooled him?  A deposition indicates a federal judge's order wasn't followed during two executions last year. The muck grows deeper."

Excerpt:

...This is just another story in the ongoing saga of North Carolina's death penalty, and it's an ugly story, indeed. Inmates on death row have been shown to be disadvantaged by prosecutors' zeal. Some politicians, so afraid of the pro-death penalty forces out there, are determined to proceed with executions even though the death penalty is hopelessly flawed. It is not perfect and cannot be made perfect. Yet it can't be corrected if a mistake is made.

...The questions, quandaries, and moral issues surrounded state-sponsored executions are many and complex -- too complex to just continue with the status quo. Governor Easley and lawmakers should back a two-year moratorium, and sort this out without proceeding with any further executions. At the end of that time, they might be overcome with logic and reason, and abolish the death penalty for good.

(Earlier coverage here.)