H774 Summary

• Permits medical professionals other than physicians (physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, emergency medical technicians, and paramedic-credentialed personnel) to monitor lethal injections and certify executions in North Carolina.

• Requires a licensed physician to be present on premises and available to examine the body and pronounce death if a licensed physician is not present during the execution itself.

• Removes specific requirement that death be administered by "ultrashort-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent" and instead refers to procedures outlined in G.S. 15-188.

• Exempts information about manufacturers, compounds, preparers, prescribers, dispensers, suppliers, and administrators of execution drugs from public disclosure under North Carolina's public records law.

• Expands the Department of Public Safety's exemption from administrative rules to specifically include matters relating to executions under Article 19 of Chapter 15.