Doctors Walk Out on Execution

I had a feeling that the latest court order regarding California executions was going to cause problems. Early this morning an execution was delayed after doctors walked out:

The scheduled execution of convicted murderer-rapist Michael Morales was postponed this morning after court-ordered anesthesiologists refused to participate in the process. The prison warden abruptly changed plans and announced that the inmate would be executed with a lethal dose of barbiturates.

At 2:55 a.m., Warden Steven Ornoski announced that the prison indends to carry out the execution at 7:30 p.m. today with an unprecedented single dose of sodium pentothal, a lethal barbiturate, rather than the standard three-chemical potion.

Injecting Morales with five grams of barbiturates was expected to lengthen the execution from the usual 11 minutes to as long as 45 minutes.

A week ago, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel responded to defense claims that lethal injection violated a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by offering three options: A lethal injection of only barbiturates; having an anesthesiologist on hand to ensure Morales was unconscious when the standard three-chemical injection was administered; or a stay of the execution pending a hearing.

State corrections officials chose the second option, and had two doctors ready to proceed with the execution as planned at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

After serious differences of opinion with the anesthesiologists, Ornoski asked his staff to stand down on the execution at about 2 a.m.

The doctors' withdrawal came at the end of hasty legal maneuvering in U.S. District Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. But it was the language in an opinion rendered Monday by the appellate court that had the court-ordered anesthesiologists in mutiny.

The doctors' concerns hinged on the ethics of returning an inmate to consciousness in the event of a botched lethal injection.

Consequently, the 46 year old guy who kidnapped, raped and murdered a teenager still lives. I expect that new challenges will be raised today, and given the checkered past of the Ninth Circus, this could drag on for awhile.

UPDATE: As I predicted, the execution has been postponed once again:

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.

State officials notified the federal courts they would be unable to comply with a judge's order to have a medical profesional administer a lethal dose of barbiturate to Michael Morales in the execution chamber, a court spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

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.

"Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical," the doctors, whose identities were not released, said in a statement. "As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process."

The doctors had been brought in by a federal judge after Morales' attorneys argued that the three-part lethal injection process violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The attorneys said a prisoner could feel excruciating pain from the last two chemicals if he were not fully sedated.

I wonder what painkillers Mr. Morales adminstered to his victim to prevent suffering?

I still say a bullet to the back of the head is quick and painless. Now if only the courts will agree...