California's inspiring execution team

It seems that whenever the curtain hiding lethal injection procedures is pulled back, what we discover is even less inspiring than the Wizard of Oz.  In Missouri, as detailed here, we learned that the physician that mixing the drugs used during  executions admitted he was dyslexic and often transposes numbers. Now from California, as detailed in newspaper articles here and here, we learn about the disturbing make-up of the California lethal injection team.  Here are "highlights" from the San Francisco Chronicle:

The San Quentin prison employee leading the team scheduled to execute Michael Morales for the 1981 rape and murder of a teenage Lodi girl had been diagnosed with clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and was on antidepressant medication when Morales' execution was scheduled to proceed, according to federal court filings released Friday. Another execution team leader at San Quentin was terminated as a guard for bringing illegal narcotics into the prison, but was reinstated after being suspended five months without pay, and later advanced to head the execution team....

Morales, who had been scheduled for execution Feb. 21, is challenging the constitutionality of California's lethal injection procedure.  His attorneys maintain that prisoners may suffer severe pain because they are not properly anesthetized before being given lethal doses of drugs.  Morales' attorneys, in court filings, argue that California executions are performed by "prison personnel with criminal records of misconduct and who lack skill, competence, professionalism," training and other skills to perform executions.

Some recent related posts:

• Up and down the Hill again
• My lethal injection piece on SSRN
• Missouri still struggling with its execution protocol
• My take on the other side of Hill