The federal ruling keeping Dr. Alan Doerhoff from working on Missouri executions was eventually overturned, but state officials have said they would not use Doerhoff again.

Doerhoff was the target of more than 20 malpractice lawsuits and was reprimanded by the state for not disclosing them.

The federal government has hired Doerhoff as part of a team that executes condemned prisoners by injection at the federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind., according to a court pleading filed by six inmates sentenced to die there. The inmates challenged the government for relying on Doerhoff's help in performing execution duties.

Calls to Doerhoff and the U.S. Department of Justice were not immediately returned. His hiring was first reported Thursday in the Los Angeles Times.

A spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons said the agency could not comment and would not identify anyone on its execution team.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called Doerhoff's federal role "surprising and disturbing" and proof that "people are in the dark about much of this."

Last year, U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. called for reforms to Missouri executions and ruled that Doerhoff, 63, of Jefferson City, could not participate "in any manner, at any level" in the state's lethal injection process.

The doctor said in a deposition hearing that he is dyslexic, transposes numbers, and mixed and administered lethal drugs without a written lethal injection protocol, despite his lack of training in anesthesiology. A federal appeals court overturned Gaitan's ruling.

According to the newly revealed court records, Doerhoff was brought on at Terre Haute to develop execution procedures, place and monitor intravenous lines, assess a condemned inmate's level of consciousness after anesthesia is administered, and make a determination of death.

It's the only federal prison where executions occur, though executions there are on hold because the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of lethal injection in a Kentucky case.

It's not clear how long Doerhoff has been helping the federal government and whether he assisted in executions in the past, or in the planning for future ones. Some of the material in the court record was redacted, and attorney Paul Enzinna, who filed the inmates' pleading, declined to comment.

The justices discussed the case at their private conference on Friday, but reached no resolution.

Four justices must vote to grant an appeal. The court does not always reach a decision the first time it discusses a case.

At issue is the capital's 31-year ban on handguns, among the strictest gun-control laws in the nation. In March, a federal appeals court struck down the ban as incompatible with the Second Amendment.

The justices next meet on Nov. 20 to consider accepting appeals. Their decision could be announced then or when the court convenes for oral arguments on Nov. 26.

An indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court accuses Clinch County Sheriff Winston Peterson of perjury, obstruction of justice, using forced labor and extorting former jail inmates.

Peterson, 62, pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday and was released on $10,000 bond.

Investigators say the sheriff charged jail inmates $18 per day for room and board. County officials agreed in April 2006 to return $27,000 to hundreds of inmates who paid the fees between 2000 and 2004. Peterson also used an inmate to do work at a business run by his wife, investigators say.

The sheriff is charged with obstructing justice by alerting an unindicted co-conspirator about the identity of an FBI informant he believed was part of a criminal investigation into courthouse activities. He is also accused of lying during a grand jury investigation of a Superior Court judge.

Neither Peterson nor his attorney could be reached for comment Thursday night. An after-hours call to his attorney's home went unanswered, and the sheriff could not be reached through the dispatcher.

Peterson is the latest Clinch County official to be caught up in investigations into the rural county's practices.

Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III and Chief State Court Judge Berrien Sutton face allegations by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, a state agency that investigates Georgia judges and has power to recommend removing them from office. They have not been charged with any crimes.

Blitch, 72, is accused of ordering illegal payments to county employees, ordering the early release of imprisoned felons and presiding over a case involving his son.

Blitch's attorneys have said an investigation will prove he is innocent.

Sutton is accused of appointing non-lawyers to hear criminal cases, pressing a magistrate judge to help one of his business associates and signing an illegal order to collect court fees that were later distributed to county officials.

Thomas Whithers, an attorney for Sutton, said Wednesday the judge looks forward to his day in court. "Judge Sutton has done nothing wrong and will vigorously defend these allegations," he said.