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Appeals seek to alter death penalty
Sacramento Bee ^ | 1/24/6 | Claire Cooper

Posted on 01/24/2006 3:25:24 PM PST by SmithL

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To: SmithL

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:7ed5djsKxrwJ:www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20060111/OPED01/601110311+Michael+Angelo+Morales+lodi+murder+rape&hl=en&start=8


Published Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

A chieving justice has been agonizingly slow for the family of Terri Lynn Winchell. Stockton's Michael Angelo Morales has been in life-or-death limbo for too long.


If full punishment is delayed for 25 years after a crime is committed and 23 years after a jury has delivered its verdict, it's time to revisit jurisprudence in America.

On the night of Jan. 8, 1981, Winchell, a Tokay High School senior, was brutally murdered, and her body was dumped in a vineyard off Peltier Road, north of Lodi.

Five days later, 1,000 people attended her funeral.

Two men were arrested. Ricky Ortega, who cooperated with the police, is spending the rest of his life in prison for setting up the slaying.

Morales, who actually carried out the cruel homicide, was sentenced to death April 25, 1983, by a Ventura County jury that convicted him of rape, conspiracy and murder with the special circumstances of torture and lying in wait.

Since then, Morales' case has been moving from the state Supreme Court to various appellate courts. It's been sent to the U.S. Supreme Court twice.

Now 45, he's on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Finally, Morales been given a Feb. 21 execution date.

Whether you support the death penalty or not, a quarter-century is simply too long for a case such as this to be resolved.

It hasn't been fair to Morales or to Winchell's shattered family.

Convicted killers can be allowed fairness and every judicial consideration without it taking his long.

Where's the justice? Where's the closure? If the death penalty is a deterrent, it needs to loom more ominously over those who would commit such brutal and senseless crimes. Retribution needs to be administered before we forget why it's deserved.

Otherwise, we might as well forget the death penalty.


21 posted on 01/24/2006 3:43:01 PM PST by doug from upland (NEW YORK TIMES -- traitorous b*st*rds)
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To: K4Harty
If the problem is with lethal injection, why did he choose it? He could have opted for the gas chamber. I believe they get a choice.

I think you're wrong. I believe those sentenced when gas was the official method get to choose, but those sentenced since injection became the official method cannot.

22 posted on 01/24/2006 3:47:31 PM PST by Still Thinking (Disregard the law of unintended consequences at your own risk.)
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To: SmithL

Shut up, Morales, and die like a man!


23 posted on 01/24/2006 3:53:26 PM PST by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: K4Harty

Well, in that case his grave concern would be he can't breathe!!!!


24 posted on 01/24/2006 4:00:40 PM PST by republican4ever
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To: Still Thinking

The official method in California is gas unless lethal injection is requested. Here's the link for all states.


25 posted on 01/24/2006 4:04:10 PM PST by Sam Boogliodemus
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To: Sam Boogliodemus

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=245

Sorry. Forgot to hit ctl V.


26 posted on 01/24/2006 4:05:50 PM PST by Sam Boogliodemus
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To: SmithL

More stalling tactics. Haven't the medical properties of the "Kevorkian Cocktail" been pretty well documented by now? How many times do courts have to rule that lethal injection is NOT "cruel and unusual"?


27 posted on 01/24/2006 4:17:52 PM PST by IronJack
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To: SmithL
He fears that pancuronium bromide, the second of three drugs administered in executions by California and 26 other states - yet banned by the American Veterinary Medical Association in euthanizing animals - will leave him conscious of torturous pain but paralyzed and unable to cry out.

Hang him.

28 posted on 01/24/2006 5:06:38 PM PST by Bubba_Leroy (What did Rather know and when did he know it?)
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To: doug from upland

the SCOTUS just stayed an execution tonight, I don't see a thread on it.


29 posted on 01/24/2006 5:08:10 PM PST by oceanview
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To: SmithL

YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME! IT MIGHT HURT!


30 posted on 01/24/2006 5:09:02 PM PST by arthurus (Better to fight them OVER THERE than over here.)
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To: SmithL

I think hanging is the best way. The rope is reusable. It would be even cheaper to smother the condemned man in his cell at the appointed hour.


31 posted on 01/24/2006 5:10:27 PM PST by arthurus (Better to fight them OVER THERE than over here.)
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To: Lancer_N3502A

That sounds good hang the bozo.


32 posted on 01/24/2006 5:18:22 PM PST by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: oceanview
I just posted the Florida execution stay
33 posted on 01/24/2006 5:21:57 PM PST by doug from upland (NEW YORK TIMES -- traitorous b*st*rds)
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To: SmithL

Well, they could do like the Filipinos and use a gradually tightened garotte around the neck of the condemned, restrained in a chair.


34 posted on 01/24/2006 7:38:40 PM PST by Still Thinking (Disregard the law of unintended consequences at your own risk.)
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To: Jim Noble

Better then he treated his victims.


35 posted on 01/24/2006 7:42:08 PM PST by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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