Posted on 02/21/2006 5:27:44 AM PST by Brilliant
SAN QUENTIN, California (Reuters) - The execution of a California man who raped and murdered an 17-year-old girl was delayed for at least 15 hours early on Tuesday because two court-appointed anesthesiologists walked off the job over ethical concerns.
The doctors backed out when the language in an early-morning U.S. District Court ruling did not sufficiently allay their ethical concerns, San Quentin State prison spokesman Lt. Vernell Crittendon said.
They were on hand after a court said the state must ensure the condemned man, Michael Morales, was in fact unconscious before a lethal injection was administered, thereby minimizing the pain he might suffer.
A federal judge had ordered prison officials to have one present in a ruling that was roundly condemned by medical groups on ethical grounds.
The execution was reschedule for 7:30 p.m. PST on Tuesday, Crittendon said.
"The district court order that followed the publication of the Ninth Circuit opinion does not sufficiently allay our concerns. While we contemplated a positive role that might enable us to verify a humane execution protocol for Mr. Morales, what is being asked of us now is ethically unacceptable," said a statement from the doctors read by Crittendon.
It was not immediately clear what the language of the ruling was that upset the doctors.
Defense attorneys had claimed last week that the use of the lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment, barred by the Constitution. This prompted a judge to order prison officials to either alter the composition of the lethal chemicals used or make medical experts available to ensure unnecessary pain was not inflicted during the execution.
But after the doctors walked out, the state decided it will pursue the other option and change the mix of chemicals used in the injection.
Morales, 46, was sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder and rape of Terri Winchell of Lodi, California.
The execution was delayed three times late Monday and early Tuesday, the first time when Crittendon said the execution was delayed an hour so the prison warden could review the execution process with the anesthesiologist.
Two last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution failed late on Monday.
In a statement last week, Dr. Priscilla Ray, chairwoman of the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, condemned the ruling that required the anesthesiologists present.
"The use of a physician's clinical skill and judgment for purposes other than promoting an individual's health and welfare undermines a basic ethical foundation of medicine -- first do no harm," she said. "Requiring physicians to be involved in executions violates their oath to protect lives."
He's still alive.
Good point. Then let's hire the abortion clinic 'doctors' to be on staff at prisons.
Dual purpose, they have no morales against killing and a staff shortage will be created at abortion clinics ;)
"if starving is such a euphoric high then why aren't more people doing it?)"
You haven't tried to have a reasonably sane conversation with very many vegans, have you?....:))
I heard the execution is on for tonight with a different drug. I think they should build a wooden shack, douse it in kerosine, nail his scrotum to the floor, light the shack, and had him a razor blade.
By her senior year, Winchell had a boyfriend and was excited about the prom in the spring. But the boy, friends would later learn, had a secret.
Salaices, Winchell's best friend, remembered introducing the two through a mutual friend - Rick Ortega - whom she had met at the local skating rink.
A few months into their friendship, Ortega, 19, confessed to Salaices that he was having an intimate relationship with Winchell's boyfriend. Ortega had grown to despise Winchell for taking away the boy he had a crush on. And Ortega believed she was telling others that he was gay.
In early January, Ortega wanted "to get revenge." He called his older cousin, Morales, then a 21-year-old gang member.
Morales told Ortega to get Winchell alone, and he would take care of the rest. He explained that he would strangle the girl, then toss her out on the road. They agreed there would be a signal: "When are you getting an eight-track in the car?"
On Jan. 8, 1981, Ortega called Winchell and asked if she would help him pick out a gift, a necklace for Salaices. She agreed to meet him that Thursday evening at the mall.
She didn't tell her mother about the meeting, but had planned to return home shortly with a fish-and-chips dinner.
"The last thing I said to her when she walked out the door was 'You look so beautiful,' " Christian recalled Thursday.
Winchell and Ortega ran into each other outside a Sears. They hugged and chatted for a few minutes before Ortega asked her if she would come with him for a quick drive to his cousin's house. It wouldn't take long, he said.
"When I picked her up - when I saw her, I didn't want to do it, you know," Ortega would later tell detectives. "It was fine talking about it on the phone but when I saw her, I - I just couldn't picture doing it."
He complimented her on the sweater she was wearing. Then Morales slid into the backseat of Ortega's Monte Carlo. He was behind Winchell.
During the drive, Morales asked her where she went to school and what was her name, according to court testimony from his murder trial, which was moved to Ventura County. He joked about Winchell, the girl's last name, and the doughnut shop.
Morales and his cousin pretended they were driving to a girlfriend's house when they meandered onto a country road off Interstate 5 near Lodi.
A few minutes later, as darkness began to fall, Morales asked the question: "When are you getting an eight-track for your car?" He then lurched forward and wrapped his leather belt around Winchell's neck. He pulled and pulled.
Ortega couldn't bring himself to watch but heard the girl struggle against the grip. After about 15 seconds, the belt broke. That's when Morales pulled out a hammer.
He slammed the hammer against Winchell's head - over and over. Twenty-three times.
She screamed for Ortega to help her and tried to fend off the assault, even ripping out her own hair. Ortega kept driving. Morales eventually beat her unconscious, crushing her skull.
Then, Ortega pulled over. Morales told him to drive away and come back in 15 minutes.
He dragged Winchell from the front seat and across the roadway, face-down, into the vineyard. He then raped her.
Morales began walking away from the girl, but decided to turn around. He pulled out a kitchen knife and plunged it into her chest - four times. "To make sure she died," according to the state attorney general's report.
Christian waited for her daughter to come home. By 8 p.m., she said she knew something had happened. By midnight, she could feel her daughter was gone.
"It's a feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, like your insides are ripped out," she said. "That feeling has never left."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/courts_legal/story/14199018p-15025530c.html
Uh uh..he gets to sit around and think about it until 7:30 this evening...
Tues. 4:30 PST. Right in the middle of the John & Ken Show. KFI am 640. The were the guys of Tookie Must Die Hour and have been screaming at his old protesters who haven't said a peep about this execution. Should be a good show.
... and went right back to the abortion clinic.
When i saw the court required anesthesiologists to attend, I was somehow picturing the labcoated Dr Howard, Dr Fein, and Dr Howard with their mallet.
can they give the person a strong sleeping pill or something that makes him 'sleep', and then inject him with the lethal chemical?
That said, there is NO punishment that is NOT cruel and/or unusual! The very nature of punishment makes it cruel and unusual. If it were kind and typical, it wouldn't be punishment!
The target here can't be to eliminate the cruelty and extraordinary nature of punishment, but to minimize them. The constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment is an injunction against sadism, not against justice.
Maybe we can send the guy to Oregon. They have doctors up there that will kill grannie just because she is wetting the bed at night.
How about like the Russians do it, an early morning, unexpected bullet to the back of the head. A .22 cartridge is about 3 or 4 cents.
OlD Sparky gets my vote.
Whose chair is that?
"Death by starvation...the courts have already ruled that this is humane and not cruel or painful."
I was thinking the same thing while reading this article.
Did either Doctor express concern for the suffering of the 17 year old victim?
Firest category that leapt to my mind, as well.
We do indeed live in Bizarro-world.
Dan
Then the doctors can adopt this man and pay for his upkeep in prison?
Or maybe they want to have this man come live with them...
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