Man nearing execution argues injection cruel and unusual

modbee ^ | 2-9-06

[LouAvul]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Lawyers for a condemned rapist and murderer will ask a federal judge Thursday to block the looming execution amid claims lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

Michael Morales is scheduled to be killed Feb. 21 for raping and murdering a 17-year-old Lodi girl 25 years ago.

The Stockton man has a long legal road to travel in his bid to stay alive. The U.S. Supreme Court has never endorsed a claim that lethal injection, used in 36 states, is unconstitutionally cruel, although the justices are weighing the procedure by which inmates can make such a challenge.

Morales is also asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute his sentence to life without parole, a clemency bid supported by the trial judge and six jurors who sentenced him 23 years ago.

snip

Attorneys for Morales allege a mistake made during the sedation process might mean he would appear unconscious, but internally would suffer excruciating pain once the paralyzing and the death drugs were administered.

The judge ordered prison officials to turn over to Morales' attorneys the heart-monitoring data taken during the executions of Beardslee, Stanley Tookie Williams and Clarence Allen, the last three men California executed. Attorneys demanded the data in a bid to help bolster their claim.

Morales, 46, of Stockton, raped and brutally beat a 17-year-old Lodi girl 25 years ago. Terri Winchell was found beaten and stabbed in a secluded vineyard.

He was tried in Ventura County because of extensive pretrial publicity in San Joaquin County.

[LouAvul]

By their standards, any execution is cruel and unusual. Ok, let's not make it unusual. Let's run 'em down with a car. That's pretty ordinary.

[theDentist]

Public Hanging was the usual method for a few hundred years. That works just as well.

[SF Republican]

he would appear unconscious, but internally would suffer excruciating pain One CAN be hopeful.

[2banana]

Michael Morales is scheduled to be killed Feb. 21 for raping and murdering a 17-year-old Lodi girl 25 years ago.

Cruel and unusual? How about parading him through the streets while people beat him and then hanging him in the public square with a sign "I am a child rapist and murderer"

[Tx Angel]

I wonder if Terri Winchell felt any pain as she was being brutally beaten and stabbed to death.

Cruel and unusual, indeed.

[383rr]

How about a lead pipe?

[Redcloak]

Hanging isn't cruel. Just a short drop and a sudden stop.

[RexBeach]

How about the garotte(spelling)? You get a guy with strong arms and hands and the convict reaches the other shore in no time.

[WashingtonStateRepublican]

I suggest we turn this man over to the Muslims for disposal, they can stone or stampede him to death; seeing as how they are so good at it.

[aimhigh]

The best way to deal with this is to kill them the same way they murdered their victim.

[TChris]

Where did the "and" in "cruel and unusual" go? There is simply no argument to be made that lethal injection is "unusual". Even if it is found to be "cruel", by whatever definition of the word the court deems proper, is it enough to outlaw the practice?

[Keli Kilohana]

I think that the authorities should use the much more kind and usual Terri Schiavo method--death by dehydration and starvation.

[kentj]

How about raping him with a Basball bat and beating him to death with it - that would be the same old usual method he would be accoustomed to. It's only cruel if your the one getting raped and killed - that sounds ok to me.

[tumblindice]

You just can't please some people. He rejected the first option as well: of being raped, brutally beaten, then stabbed to death.
There's your state of nature buddy.

[dennisw]

OK- beat him to death the way he beat his 17 year old female victim to death. I can't belive this scum has avoided execution for 25 years. This is a crime. He has worked the system and is still doing it

[American Quilter]

Gosh, I wouldn't want to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on a man who raped and murdered an innocent woman. Let's write messages insulting Mohammed all over his body in indelible ink, and parachute him naked into Teheran.

[lilylangtree]

Let the man decide after being given the same death as William Wallace. Then if he survives (he won't) he'll know what "cruel and inhuman" really means.

[inquest]

Isn't this the same stuff they put down dogs with?

[hillary's_fat_a**]

Ok then .. give the condemned man his choice of execution:

1. lethal injection of drugs

2. electric chair

3. firing squad

4. hanging

5. beheading by sword

Let him take his pick.

[taxcontrol]

nitrogen asphyxiation.

Cheap, painless, effective. No mess afterward, no toxic chemicals or body fluids splattered. For $80 to $120 for a tank of nitrogen gas from your local welding supply, a regulator and a mask like the kind medics use to administer oxygen, you could administer multiple executions.