a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions has been delayed until mid-September...
a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions has been delayed until mid-September, making it highly likely there will be no more inmates put to death by the state for the remainder of this year and possibly longer.
a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions has been delayed until mid-September, making it highly likely there will be no more inmates put to death by the state for the remainder of this year and possibly longer.
The immediate consequence of the delay, ordered by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, is that Michael A. Morales, who originally was scheduled for execution in February for the 1981 murder of Lodi teenager Terri Winchell, has at least several more months to live. The hearing on Morales' challenge to lethal injection originally had been set for next month.
Whichever way Fogel eventually rules on the challenge, an appeal is a virtual certainty, which makes it likely that there will no more executions until 2007 at the earliest.
As Morales' February 21 execution approached, his attorneys filed a lawsuit with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel arguing that Morales might feel too much pain if the sedative he was given did not make him unconscious before 2 other drugs were administered -- one to paralyze him and another to stop his heart.
The lawsuit ultimately led to an indefinite postponement of Morales' execution, with hearings set for May 2-3 to determine whether the state's execution method, similar to versions used in 36 other states, was constitutional. Hearing are now scheduled for Sept. 19.
None of California's 650 condemned inmates has an execution date.
The case is Morales v. Woodford, 06-219.
The immediate consequence of the delay, ordered by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, is that Michael A. Morales, who originally was scheduled for execution in February for the 1981 murder of Lodi teenager Terri Winchell, has at least several more months to live. The hearing on Morales' challenge to lethal injection originally had been set for next month.
Whichever way Fogel eventually rules on the challenge, an appeal is a virtual certainty, which makes it likely that there will no more executions until 2007 at the earliest.
As Morales' February 21 execution approached, his attorneys filed a lawsuit with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel arguing that Morales might feel too much pain if the sedative he was given did not make him unconscious before 2 other drugs were administered -- one to paralyze him and another to stop his heart.
The lawsuit ultimately led to an indefinite postponement of Morales' execution, with hearings set for May 2-3 to determine whether the state's execution method, similar to versions used in 36 other states, was constitutional. Hearing are now scheduled for Sept. 19.
None of California's 650 condemned inmates has an execution date.
The case is Morales v. Woodford, 06-219.
— SOURCES
- (Sources: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, 27/04/2006)