Feb. 22
USA:
Execution's delay reflects fight over injections
A California murderer represents a new wrinkle in the opposition to lethal
injection, a widely used execution method that has come under court
challenge over claims that it could cause a dying inmate extreme pain.
The on-again, off-again execution of Michael Morales, on death row for
raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl in 1981, was off again late
Tuesday when the state attorney's office told a federal judge that it
could not comply with his order that a medical professional inject the
lethal drugs.
Morales, 46, had been scheduled to die early Tuesday morning until 2
anesthesiologists refused to participate in his execution, citing ethical
reasons.
The federal judge had ordered an anesthesiologist to be present after
Morales' lawyers argued that the three drugs used in California and 35
other states to put inmates to death violated the Constitution's ban on
cruel and unusual punishment.
They said Morales could feel pain from the last 2 drugs if he weren't
fully sedated by the 1st one.
Judge Jeremy Fogel denied Morales' motion but gave prison officials two
options: They could put doctors in San Quentin State Prison's death
chamber to make sure Morales was rendered unconscious or they could
dispense with the 1st 2 drugs used to paralyze muscles and stop the heart
and rely on an overdose of the sedative to kill him.
Prison officials had planned to press forward with the execution using
only the sedative. Fogel approved that plan but said the sedative must be
administered in the execution chamber by a person licensed by the state to
inject medications intravenously, a group that includes doctors, nurses,
dentists and other medical technicians.
The state attorney's office would not say whether getting a licensed
person was the issue.
The victim's mother, Barbara Christian, was outraged. "I'm totally
disillusioned with the justice system. We've been waiting 25 years with
the expectancy that he is going to pay for his crimes," she said. "It
feels like we just got punched in the stomach."
Lethal injection has been challenged many times since 1978 but more
frequently in the past 2 years, says Deborah Denno, a law professor at
Fordham University who has studied the issue.
No judge has declared unconstitutional lethal injection, which has largely
replaced electrocution, gassing, hanging and shooting in executions. Some
judges have ordered procedure changes to make sure the condemned suffer no
pain, Denno says.
A New Jersey appeals court stopped executions in 2004 when it ordered
prison officials to explain why specific chemicals are chosen and how
they're administered. Executions haven't resumed. In Kentucky last year, a
judge spelled out new ground rules, including a ban on injections in
inmates' necks.
However, ordering an anesthesiologist to stand by "is unprecedented,"
Denno says. This spring, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a Florida death
row inmate's argument that he should be allowed to challenge lethal
injection on civil rights grounds. The case is not expected to decide
lethal injection's constitutionality.
On Tuesday, Judge Fogel said San Quentin officials could execute Morales
that evening using at least 5 grams of the sedative sodium thiopental.
Typically in surgery, 250-300 milligrams of the drug is used.
(source: USA Today)
