1.   Doctors, the suit claims, also supervise attachment of a heart monitor and might give the condemned inmate a sedative.

2.   Although executing the mentally ill is permissible under law, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the condemned inmate must be competent at the time of execution.

3.   Another time, Pickett noted that a small window, the sole source of outside light in the holding area, caused condemned inmates consternation.

4.   A spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, Christine May, said physician participation is limited to declaring the condemned inmate dead and signing a death certificate.

5.   Add all the condemned inmates from the counties containing Austin, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Tyler and Lubbock, and you would almost reach it.

6.   But at the same time, the high court said condemned inmates remain free under the law to file their appeals of death sentences directly to the Supreme Court.

7.   But he did express concern about the way the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles handles clemency cases for condemned inmates.

8.   Christine May, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said physician participation was limited to declaring the condemned inmate dead and signing a death certificate.

9.   Condemned inmates in Texas are allowed to have five witnesses at their execution.

10.   Condemned inmates have had little success with either method.