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February 21, 2006
The Morales mess and lethal injection scrummages continue
The Morales capital case in California has been high drama with an amazing cast of characters from Ken Starr to the Terminator and every state and federal judge in between (links below provides some highlights). But today the drama has been taken to a new level after two anesthesiologists late last night refused to participate in the court-ordered lethal injection protocol because of ethical concerns.
This AP article provides perhaps the latest update, indicating that prison officials have "rescheduled the execution for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and said they would employ a different technique: administering a fatal overdose of barbiturate in lieu of the three-drug cocktail typically used in lethal injections."
Why the rush you ask? Well: "The prison has until one minute before midnight on Tuesday to execute Morales. After that, the 'death warrant' expires and officials would have to go back to the trial judge who imposed the death sentence in 1983 for another warrant."
For additional media coverage of the litigation mess over lethal injection, here is a recent newspaper article from Florida entitled, "Death row appeals over injections create legal mess." And for additional review of the medical ethics surrounding lethal injection, check out this interesting NPR piece with Dr. Priscilla Ray of the American Medical Association's ethics council..
Some related posts:
- Schwarzenegger denies clemency in Morales case
- Back to the lethal injection scrum in Morales
- Ninth Circuit rejects efforts to block California execution
- SCOTUS lets California execution go forward
February 21, 2006 at 02:48 PM | Permalink
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The execution of Michael Morales in California was delayed until tonight after two anesthesiologists [Read More]
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Comments
As a citizen who has had two friends brutally murdered, I am outraged at the concern demonstrated over some brief discomfort that a sadistic torturer may experience as a result of a well-deserved punishment.
There is no doubt as to the corpus delecti and there are no unsettling habeas corpus issues. Perhaps we have erred in abandoning the tradition of hanging the worst of the worst. There is just no pleasing some people with a fetish for coddling brutal sociopaths.
Posted by: Arthur Downs | Feb 21, 2006 5:06:47 PM
From a human interest standpoint, I am a retired
neighborhood museum owner and culturalist, amazed at the drama surrounding the Morales issue.
Could you please provide me the name of the Judge that sentenced Morales in 1983 and the text of the sentence.
Thank you for maintaining this site!
Posted by: MsLaini Raine | Feb 22, 2006 12:44:15 AM
Posted by: | Oct 14, 2008 10:25:05 PM
