Posted on 09/29/2006 1:56:43 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN JOSE
A judge weighing whether the state's lethal injection method is an unconstitutionally cruel punishment said Friday that the issue hinges on whether the condemned inmate is aware of what's happening.
"The critical question, I guess, the court has to look at is what evidence there is of consciousness," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said at the conclusion of the four day hearing.
Until a ruling, which Fogel expects to issue in November, executions in the state are on hold.
Fogel halted the execution of rapist and murderer Michael Morales in February after his lawyers claimed inmates were suffering excruciating deaths in San Quentin State Prison's death chamber.
Defense witnesses said executioners were not properly trained and were not delivering proper doses of the three drugs that sedate, paralyze and then stop inmates' hearts. While inmates may appear at peace, the drugs may mask a painful death, witnesses said.
The state's medical experts testified that the condemned are knocked unconscious in the first moments of the process and die without unnecessary pain.
The hearing is one of several that have taken place nationwide as death row prisoners mount challenges to lethal injection, which is the preferred execution method in 37 states.
Fogel said he would not determine if the death penalty is an unconstitutional breach of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. That decision is up to lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.
But he may tinker with the California's execution procedure to eliminate any unnecessary pain Morales and the state's other 651 death row inmates may feel.
Morales, 46, was condemned for murdering Terri Winchell, 17, of Lodi 25 years ago.
The girl's mother, Barbara Christian, said the hearings were unnecessary for a man who repeatedly beat her daughter with a hammer and ran her over with a car.
"I personally don't care about pain he feels," Christian after the hearing.
The case is Morales v. Tilton, 06-219.
Consciousness,painless,execution,judge fogel,california,death penalty
I kinda hope he's fully aware as the needle goes in - and every step thereafter.
Aku Soku Zan
Well then. I'll volunteer to bash the murderer in the head with a sledge hammer so he feels no pain from the needles.
I have said it before I will say it again.
Overdose them whioth heroin and let them spnd heir last minutes on top of th world. I can guarantee there is no pain. I have seen too many overdoses get up and go out for more heroin when they wake up. Only these wouldnt wake up.
Who Cares? The perp sure didn't!
If it is neither cruel nor unusual, it's not punishment.
This should ease the Judge's tortured conscious.
Now if this pinhead "judge" can come up with the "key" to "painless" rapes and homicides we'll be getting somewhere.
There is no reason on earth why executions should be painless.
I loathe the ACLU with every fiber of my being.
The most painless form of execution is the guillotine, although it is very messy.
LOL!
Here's one method to prove he is conscious.
Put a handkerchief around his eyes.
Bring him to stand against a wall.
Then shoot him.......
I wonder, would the rulers of America (the judges) consider using dehydration and starving to death to get rid of the perps? It was so humane with Terri Shiavo (Felos said she was euphoric!), why not use it with these heinous criminals.
This is a red herring.
The condemed is ALWAYS CONCIOUS OF HIS STATUS ON DEATH ROW.
This reminds me of a Scifi story that was in the old OMNI magazine.
The defendant had to wait in an apartment during jury deliberations. If if the jury found him guilty "something" in the apartment would kill him. (Poison in the water, poison oderless gas, etc.) In the end it was a electricuting door knob after a false sign flashed a "not guilty" verdict. It was more humane.
These people are criminally insane psychopaths.
They nauseate and anger me beyond any words.
They are assistants and brethren of the criminals they love so much.
I've never been one to hijack a thread, and am not even sure this is doing so, BUT...
perhaps the judge can recommend a pair of scissors jammed at the base of the skull for those killers condemned to die? After all, that is already an accepted form of execution, and we are told: painless!
Would you reccommend the cannula be used also, to suck out the brain, as it is with the partially born alive children democrats defend the slaughter of?
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