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What happened to California's death penalty? There has not been an execution since 2006, when a federal judge ruled against the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld three-drug executions. It didn't matter. Though as candidates Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris -- who both personally oppose capital punishment -- promised to uphold the law, in real life they've let things slide. Fed up, two men related to murder victims have filed suit to push the state to carry out the law. Kermit Alexander wants to see the law work on Tiequon Cox,...

She allegedly fabricated statements by jurors, others to stop executions. A defense investigator fabricated dozens of statements from jurors and others in her quest to overturn death penalty sentences, lawyers for the attorney general's office said Wednesday.Kathleen Culhane, 40, of Petaluma was arraigned Wednesday on 45 felony counts of perjury, forgery and counterfeiting documents in front of Sacramento Superior Court Judge David Abbott."This could make people lose faith in the justice system," Michael Farrell, senior assistant attorney general, said after Culhane's arraignment. "She undermined the system."Farrell said the 23 false declarations submitted by Culhane in four death-penalty cases have been...

SAN FRANCISCO - An investigator who allegedly fabricated juror statements to win clemency for a death row inmate earlier this year is now suspected of submitting forged documents in at least three other cases involving condemned prisoners, the California Attorney General's Office said Friday. Agents with the state Department of Justice searched Kathleen Culhane's San Francisco apartment on Thursday seeking evidence that could be used to charge her with felony perjury, forgery and submitting false documents, according to court records. An affidavit filed in support of the search warrant said officials doubt the authenticity of at least 23 declarations Culhane...

Anyone curious about the motives of the federal judge who has temporarily put the brakes on executions in California should know this: Jeremy Fogel comes with plenty of personal biases. He leans decidedly toward the San Francisco Giants. He would probably rule in favor of the jazz stylings of pianist Keith Jarrett. And he's partial to the steam-poached salmon with Dijon beurre blanc when dining at Maddalena's in Palo Alto. His true feelings about the death penalty, however, are not up for discussion. ``My feeling is that it's constitutional,'' Fogel said this week in an interview with the Mercury News....

Morales was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Terri Lynn Winchell, a 17 year old Lodi Tokay High school senior. Terri was 17 and just months away from her high school graduation when she disappeared Jan. 8, 1981. The next day her body was found in a vieyard in Lodi. She had been strangled, hit 23 times in the head with a hammer, raped and stabbed in the chest. Morales was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Feb. 21, 2006. On Jan 27, 2006 Kenneth Starr formally asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare the life of...

Lethal injection blues By Mona CharenFeb 24, 2006 They found her body in a vineyard. Her purple sweater was pulled up revealing the knife protruding from her chest. Terri Lynn Winchell had been 17. It was 1981.Michael Morales, whose execution was indefinitely delayed last week, was convicted of her murder. It was established at trial that Morales, a gang member, had killed Winchell as a favor to his cousin, Rick Ortega. The Modesto Bee reported that Ortega, who knew Winchell's boyfriend, persuaded the girl to take a drive with him. When Winchell entered the car, she was introduced to Morales,...

Note: for those who haven't followed the story, this is the federal district judge in California who has ruled that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment because the murdering scumbag might suffer. Michael Morales had breakfast this morning. He will have lunch. He will have dinner. He will continue to breathe. Terri hasn't been able to do any of those things for over two decades. ========================================================================== Fogel, Jeremy D. Born 1949 in San Francisco, CA Federal Judicial Service:U. S. District Court, Northern District of CaliforniaNominated by William J. Clinton on September 8, 1997, to a seat vacated by Robert...

U.S. DISTRICT Judge Jeremy Fogel tried to find a commonsense way of addressing defense lawyers' arguments that convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales might feel pain during his execution by lethal injection - scheduled for Feb. 21, but now postponed. He tried to do the right thing, and for that Fogel got snookered. Californians got snookered too. The state switched from poison gas in 1996 in order to make executions as painless as possible. Now defense lawyers have used that goal to postpone the execution of a man -- who raped, bludgeoned, strangled and knifed 17-year-old Terri Winchell -- because he might...

For hundreds of years, doctors have been involved in executions. But their efforts to get out of this grisly business put them on a collision course this week with a federal judge who ordered that they assist in killing a California inmate. "There's been an attempt to medicalize executions all the way back to the French Revolution," when Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin invented the guillotine as a humane method of death, said University of Minnesota bioethicist Dr. Steven Miles. "Doctors then got involved again in designing electrocution for the same reason in the United States," he said. "The medical profession has...

State attorneys seek authority for Morales execution using one drug By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service February 21, 2006, 11:42 a.m. SAN JOSE (BCN) - Lawyers for the state of California went back to a federal judge in San Jose this morning to seek authority for corrections officials to carry out an execution tonight using only one drug. The action followed the postponement early this morning of the execution of convicted murderer and rapist Michael Morales, who was originally scheduled to be put to death shortly after midnight. The execution was delayed after two anesthesiologists said they could not...

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- The execution of a condemned killer was postponed early Tuesday after two anesthesiologists refused for ethical reasons to take part, and attorneys pursued a new round of court challenges that could delay the execution indefinitely. Michael Morales, 46, was supposed to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. But the execution was put off until at least Tuesday night after the anesthesiologists objected that they might have to advise the executioner if the inmate woke up or appeared to suffer pain.

San Francisco - The execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was postponed Tuesday after two anaesthesiologists who were to ensure a painless death withdrew on ethical grounds. The execution of Michael Morales, 46, had been scheduled for 12.01 a.m. Tuesday after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. courts denied his final appeals. But the two anaesthesiologists cited concerns over a last-minute ruling by a judge who ordered them to intervene in the event that Morales woke up or appeared to be in pain from the administering of the lethal combination of drugs. "Any such intervention...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO - The state on Tuesday postponed indefinitely the execution of a condemned killer amid a court battle over the state's method of lethal injection and the role doctors may play in the death chamber.</p> <p>State officials notified the federal courts they would be unable to comply with a judge's order to have a lethal dose of barbiturate administered to Michael Morales by a medical professional in the execution chamber, a spokeswoman for the federal courts told The Associated Press.</p>

Anesthesiologists Delay Calif. Execution By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 13 minutes ago SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - The planned execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was delayed until Tuesday night after two anesthesiologists refused to participate because of ethical concerns. ADVERTISEMENT With the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, defense lawyers requested a stay from the federal judge who last week ordered San Quentin State Prison to have an anesthesiologist on hand to minimize Michael Angelo Morales' pain as he was put to death by lethal injection. A second anesthesiologist was retained...

<p>In the hours before his execution at San Quentin State Prison, condemned inmate Michael Morales met only with his legal team and has been described by a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation official as "upbeat'' and "cooperative.''</p> <p>Morales, 46, was moved into what is known as the death watch cell at 6 p.m. today, according to CDC spokeswoman Elaine Jennings.</p>

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...

SAN FRANCISCO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has denied a request by an attorney for condemned inmate Michael Morales that the governor reconsider granting Morales a clemency hearing. Morales, 46, was convicted of the 1981 sexual assault and murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi, and is scheduled to die by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Schwarzenegger announced Friday that he had decided not to grant clemency to Morales, stating, "Morales' claim that he is a changed man does not excuse the brutal murder and rape of Terri Winchell." On Sunday, Kenneth Starr, who is one...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the execution of convicted killer Michael Morales. Justice Anthony Kennedy reviewed the case, then sent it to the full court, which denied Morales' final appeal at 6:29 p.m. EST, according to court spokesman Ed Turner. "The court entered orders denying the request for stays of execution," he said. The Supreme court was the only legal option left for Morales, 46, who is scheduled to die from lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. at San Quentin State Prison for killing teenager Terri Winchell, of Lodi. He would become the...

San Francisco -- A California condemned prisoner who murdered, raped and tortured a girl 25 years ago moved a step closer to death when a federal appeals court dismissed on Sunday petitions seeking to block Tuesday's lethal injection. Barring a reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court, where the case is to be appealed, Michael Morales, 46, is to become the 14th prisoner California has executed since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978. It would be the third execution at San Quentin State Prison, located a few miles north of here, since the Dec. 13 injection of Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie...

Michael Morales is a death row inmate in California scheduled to die on February 21st. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ruled that an anesthesiologist must ensure that Mr. Morales is unconscious before the paralyzing agent and heart-stopping drug can be administered. Fogel said he would block the execution otherwise to "guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the Constitution." How very considerate. Do you know why Mr. Morales is on death row? Let me tell you