Calif. Execution Postponed Indefinitely

[Neil D]

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - A convicted killer's execution was postponed for the second time in less than a day amid continuing concerns over the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection policy.

An hour before Michael Morales was to be strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at San Quentin Prison, officials called off the execution, saying they could not comply with a judge's recent order to have a medical provider administer the fatal dose of barbiturate.

"We were not able to find a licensed professional that was willing to inject medication intravenously, ending the life of a human being," San Quentin spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Tuesday evening.

Morales, who was sent to death row for torturing, raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl, originally was supposed to be executed just after midnight Monday. The warden had to suspend that plan when a pair of anesthesiologists who were hired to make sure Morales did not feel any pain balked at the last minute.

Both snags stemmed from a federal judge's order requiring the state to change the way it carries out lethal injections. Like 35 other states, California in the past gave its prisoners three separate drugs — one to relax them, another to paralyze them and a third to stop their hearts.

Ruling earlier this month on a defense motion that the procedure ran afoul of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel gave officials a choice: either bring in doctors to ensure Morales was properly anesthetized, or skip the usual paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs and execute him with an overdose of a sedative.

The state initially elected to go with the first option, but ran into trouble when the two anesthesiologists backed out. They said they were uncomfortable taking a more active role in the execution because they might have to order more sedative if the initial dose did not put Morales completely out.

Prison officials rescheduled the execution for Tuesday night after settling on the second choice — killing Morales with a single injection of the sedative. No other state executes inmates under that procedure, which would take about half an hour to work compared to about 10 minutes with the three-drug method.

Fogel approved that plan Tuesday afternoon, but said the sedative must be administered in the execution chamber by a person who was licensed by the state to inject medications intravenously, a group that includes doctors, nurses, dentists and other medical technicians.

Yet with only hours to go before the death warrant on Morales expired at 11:59 p.m., San Quentin could not find a licensed professional despite "exploring all the options available," Crittendon said.

Barbara Christian, the mother of Morales' victim, said she was angry and disappointed by yet another postponement, which prison officials said would last indefinitely.

"We just want to get this out of our heads and out of our lives," said Christian. "The whole justice system, it's ridiculous... The victims are going through more pain than the murderer."

One of Morales' attorneys, Ben Weston, said the delay "goes a long way toward demonstrating the state doesn't have its ducks in a row for humanely killing a human being. They haven't figured out how to do it."

[:"blue"] I wonder if this guy is still under the death sentence or if he is in for life now? [/]

[Dr. Shane]

I heard this on NPR this morning. He is still under the death sentence but is execution will not be scheduled until the legal issues are worked out.

The doctors don't want to execute convicts becuase they take an oath to save lives and not take them. So how does doctor-assisted suicide fit in. The answer is just to let Dr. Death out of prison and give him a job in California.

[Halfstep Denise]

My husband and I agree with you! Let Dr. Kevorkian do his thing, but even he might not participate in an execution. His patients chose to die.

I have already called my California State Senator, voicing my opinion that California choose another form of capital punishment that wouldn't involve the medical community.

Criminals seem to believe in capital punishment. Way too many murders have occurred in California, at least, when after the shooting, the murderer turns the gun on himself/herself.

I do not feel that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment for anyone who viciously murders someone! I risk lethal injection every time I have surgery! Obviously my anesthesiologist won't use the same "cocktail" on me, but if he uses too much of the "right thing" I could be just as dead!

Halfstep Denise

[Dr. Shane]

My solution to the right to die is to have the prison executioners do it. That way doctors don't have to be involved in that either. Of course it could still be done in a person's home or hospital. I would want to be dragging sick people into prison just to help them kill themselves.

[Gerr]

Death is made as painless as possible to these criminals, done at midnight, and then clowns claim that the death penalty does not deter crime! For the death penalty to deter crime, execution should be held on prime time TV, and made as gruesome & painful as possible! Years ago, I had a patient who went on business to Saudi Arabia. They had no qualms whatsoever leaving their cameras & other valuables in unlocked hotel rooms. Thieves who are caught are likely to have their hand chopped off. Some may argue that this is barbaric, cruel & unusual punishment. Which is more barbaric, to allow gruesome crime to be inflicted on innocent citizens or to make crime so painful that a criminal would hesitate to commit one for fear of pain?

Love and pain are two of the most powerful forces on this planet. Love, unfortunately, takes time to effect changes, while pain in most cases causes quick changes, sometimes even instantaneous.

Gerry

[Ron Lambert]

That suggests an alternative method of execution. Strap C-4 or Semtex to the prisoner like he were a suicide bomber, and blow him up by remote control in a strong room designed to confine the explosion. Nothing could be quicker or more certain!

Even better though, do away with the death penalty, and let life in prison without parole be the maximum possible penalty. At least that way, if later it is proven that the prisoner is actually innocent, he can be released. If he were already executed unjustly, then too bad, society is guilty of murdering the innocent. There is no need for society to run that risk.

[Neil D]

Wow..... I am shocked by the emotion from members here at the delay in the execution of a man for commiting a sin.....The sin of murder....

I wonder if any of us have committed sins, and if we have had time to repent from our sins and lived to regret the sin that we have committed. I wonder if the sin that we have committed bore fruit.... and if we have regreted that fruit....

Oh well, I am just an old man, musing.....

[Dr. Shane]

Our sins have consequences. When teenage girls have sex without using birth control they get pregnant. Drug users shoot drugs and get AIDS. A young boy the speeds around a curve looses control and crashes. A man overeats, neglects exercise and gets fat. Each sin brings with it a consequence.

For centuries the punishment for murder was hanging. The punishment for stealing a horse was hanging. Christ told us not to fear man which could destroy our bodies but to fear God Who can destroy soul and body in hell.

I am not a big proponant of the death penalty but civil government is certainly within its rights to impose it. Capital punishment is not a violation of human rights nor does it violate any Biblical command. God Himself instituted the death penalty as a means of punishment.

[Gerr]

The delay of his execution if only procedural. Besides, his execution has already been delayed how long? 20 some years? Surely, if he is innocent, it would have been shown by now. He has had all these years to repent, and if he has repented, he would have nothing to fear including death.

I am not happy to see anyone die, even including a criminal, because but for the grace of God there go I. What I am argueing is that the death penalty has no deterence because it is made as painless as possible, and done out of public view in the dead of night.

Gerry

[CyberGuy]

We are the only first world country that still has a death penalty. Many nations will not extradite people to the USA unless a promise is given that those people extradited will not be executed.

As far as I am concerned if the Death penalty is done away with in favor of life in prison that would be fine with me.

[Dr. Shane]

It should be a state's rights issue. The federal government may decide to end the death penalty for federal crimes but the states should still retain the right to decide for themselves.

[Gerr]

I don't know where you live, but here in California, the prisons are busting at the seams. We can't build enough prisons, and California is deeply in the red. If you live here, would you be willing to pay to build more prisons, not just any prison, but prisons that are comfortable enough to house & maintain for 20-60 yrs those convicted & satisfy the bleeding hearts?

Gerry

[CyberGuy]

Yes I live in California as well. I have read that a person on death role is on death role for an average of 15 to 20 years before he or she is executed. The appeal process is very expensive. It has been been said that it would be cheaper to put the person in prison for life than to execute a person 20 years later and pay for all the appeals all the way up the court chain to the supreame court which every death penalty case will go by law.

A lot of our prison system is overloaded with drug related crimes. One person was put in prison for 2 years because as an electrician he wired a greenhouse and saw marijuna plants and did not report it. That is kind of stupid laws we have. Doctors are put in prison because some of their patients abused pain medication and the doctors did not have the right procedures in place.

It is said that over half of the people in our prisons in california are drug related. I know for a fact that if you have an unpaid traffic ticket and you are required to report to prison you will be out before your term expires due to the prison overcrouding. Many times the term is only a few days for unpaid traffic violations. They release all the non dangerous people on a daily basis to clear the way for more serious offenders.

I think that the drug laws should be reviewed and changed. It obviously is not working. And having a death penalty would not change this. People on death role is only a very small fraction of our prison population.

[CyberGuy]

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If you live here, would you be willing to pay to build more prisons, not just any prison, but prisons that are comfortable enough to house & maintain for 20-60 yrs those convicted & satisfy the bleeding hearts?

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Careful. I am one of those bleeding hearts. To answer your question. No I would not but change the laws legalizing some drugs or at least under strict supervison. Marijuna for instance is no more dangerous than tobacco. Yes it has some properties that gives a person a high. I have never used it but my cousin did as a teen. He does not use it now but reported it did give him a high and he was very mellow when under the influence of Marijuna. Marijuna is the NUMBER ONE cash crop in california. Yet because it is illegal no taxes is collected on that crop. People grow it up in the hills and on government land way off the road system. The grow it and harvest it by walking a mile or two inland from a highway. Now if this was legalized then farmers could grow it and it could be taxed and a lot of the this would empty our prisons for the more serious drug offenders like Meth dealers etc.

Now some states want to legalize Marijuna but the feds stop them.

Yes I am for state rights to a point. In the case of the death penalty I think the time has come to ban it and have life in prison for Murder one cases instead.

[Dr. Shane]

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Marijuna for instance is no more dangerous than tobacco.

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Not only is this wrong, if it were correct it would be an arguement for making tobacco illegal not for making marijuana legal.

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Marijuna is the NUMBER ONE cash crop in california.

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Just to point out the obvious, the value is marijuana is high because it is illegal. If it were to be made legal it would not be any more valable than tobacco. Marijuana's value comes from the fact that it is illegal.

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this was legalized then farmers could grow it and it could be taxed

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Is the sin tax really ethical? Should society fund its public programs with taxes from sinful activities? Doing such encourages and condones the sin.

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this would empty our prisons

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People that use illegal drugs are bad people. They are not in prison because of bad laws. Alcohol provides the "high" and "escape" that some feel they need. The fact that they use marijuana or other illegal drugs is becuase they have no respect for the law. If marijuana was made legal these people would continue breaking other laws because the problem isn't the law, it is the law-breakers.

The same arguement was made to legalize alcohol. It was agrued that if alcohol was made legal, it would break the back of organized crime. Well, here we are, 70 years later, and organized crime's back still isn't broken.

[Dr. Shane]

To deter crime our prisons need to become workhouses. Prisonsers should be sentenced to hard labor. Prisons should have farms that havest agricultural products that are packaged for their use and state food banks for the needy. If prison time was harder, the sentences could be shorter for these minor crimes.

[Neil D]

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To deter crime our prisons need to become workhouses. Prisonsers should be sentenced to hard labor. Prisons should have farms that havest agricultural products that are packaged for their use and state food banks for the needy

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Hmmmmm.....food banks that feed the poor are used to gather food from a slave labor market....

Interesting....

[Dr. Shane]

Prisoners have a debt to pay to society. That debt shouldn't be sitting in a cell, lifting weights and costing the taxpayer money. Now, prisons cannot become self-supporting becuase they just cost too much money to run. The prisoners, with their limited abilities, cannot produce enough to pay for their own security and board. However through hard labor they can and should contribute something. To call that slave labor is insulting to slaves.

[Neil D]

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Now, prisons cannot become self-supporting becuase they just cost too much money to run. The prisoners, with their limited abilities, cannot produce enough to pay for their own security and board.

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*cough, cough*....

Not quiet right, Shane.... Prisons can and have been shown to be pretty well self-suppporting when prisoners are 'let out' to busness. Prisons with land can grow thier own food and prisoners can produce enough to sell to the surrounding commmunity...This is known as "slave" labor. Also, the reason this practice is no more....Busness can't compete against cheap/slave labor.....

[Dr. Shane]

The United Nations doesn't even consider prison labor to be slave labor. These are two completely seperate issues and it is insulting to slaves, which are not criminals, to consider prisoners as their peers.

Historically there have been self-supporting prisons. There are still some today. However few prisons can be self-suporting amd still have enough guards and personal to run them and pay the guards what they deserve. We have a couple prisons in the area I live and every once and a while we hear of a guard being killed and it being due to the prison not having enough of them. Prisons are more costly to run today than 50 years ago and prison industries now must compete with cheap labor in India and China.

"Not only ought both criminals and paupers to labour while able for their own food and lodging, but criminals ought to make restitution for the wrongs they have done. If criminals knew that in prison they must earn their bread like honest working people, they would soon learn to prefer work with liberty, to work with imprisonment."

[Neil D]

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The United Nations doesn't even consider prison labor to be slave labor. These are two completely seperate issues and it is insulting to slaves, which are not criminals, to consider prisoners as their peers.

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[:"green"] Forced labor is pervasive

At least 12.3 million people in the world today work in slave-like conditions — and, in many cases, in actual slavery — says a May 2005 report on forced labor by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations-affiliated group dedicated to labor rights around the world.

Forced labor is “a social evil which has no place in the modern world,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

Astonishingly, one out of every 500 people on earth and one out of every 250 workers worldwide is a victim of forced labor, according to the ILO.

While 12.3 million people can be considered a whopping portion of humanity, it is likely that this number is understated because countries vary widely in their record-keeping practices.

“Forced labor” conjures up images of brutal regimes such as the Southern slavocracy in the U.S., Nazism in Germany or Pol Pot’s ruling clique in Cambodia in the 1970s. However, the vast majority of forced labor today happens in the private sector, according to the ILO report, which is titled “A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor.”

While 2.5 million people are still forced to work by state or “rebel military groups,” 9.8 million are exploited by “private agents.” Of these, an estimated 8 million are trapped in private sector industries.

“There has been a greater realization,” the report states, “that forced labor in its different forms can pervade all societies, and is by no means limited to a few pockets around the globe.”

UN’s definition

According to the ILO, forced labor comprises two elements: the work is done involuntarily and failure to perform brings a penalty. Examples of what is described as an involuntary activity could range from being born into slavery, to physical abduction and kidnapping, to lies about the type of work to be performed, to forced indebtedness or the withholding of identity documents, such as a green card. Examples of penalties range from physical or sexual violence to loss of rights, food or shelter. “Denunciation to authorities (police, immigration, etc.) and deportation” is also listed as a penalty that would constitute forced labor.

Of the 12.3 million victims, 9.49 million are in Asia and the Pacific region — especially Myanmar (formerly Burma) where state-imposed forced labor is extensive. Latin America and the Caribbean nations account for about 1.32 million people, and the “transition countries” — the nations that reverted from socialism back to capitalism — account for 210,000 people. This number is artificially low, the report notes, as it does not account for human trafficking, where people have been taken from their home country, either by being lured or captured, and forced into labor in a foreign land.

The industrialized nations in Europe and the United States are by no stretch immune from the problem: they account for 360,000 people engaged in forced labor, higher than the Middle East and North Africa (260,000) or the transition countries. [/]

People's Weekly World

Business for social responsiblity

Gendercide Watch

Time to check out the above articles for what the UN conciders forced labor...and to examine our goals for prisoners.....

[CyberGuy]

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Not only is this wrong, if it were correct it would be an arguement for making tobacco illegal not for making marijuana legal.

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Both Marijuna and tabacco are highly addictive. The only reason why tabacco is not banned is because many senators from the south where tabacco is grown would be opposed to it. My cousin used Marijuna and when he decided to quit he just walked away with no withdrawles. Maybe he did not use it enough to become addicted. That is possible. But one cannot argue the fact that tabacco is a killer. If one is legal why not the other. Both are plants that grow wild. One on the east coast tabacco and one on the west coast marijuna. What is the difference?

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Just to point out the obvious, the value is marijuana is high because it is illegal. If it were to be made legal it would not be any more valable than tobacco. Marijuana's value comes from the fact that it is illegal.

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I will agree with this point.

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Is the sin tax really ethical? Should society fund its public programs with taxes from sinful activities? Doing such encourages and condones the sin.

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Why not? They do the same thing with Tobacco. They put a sin tax on ciggarettes and put that money into fight against cigarrete usage by funding ads against tobacco usage.

Are you aware the US government fights against foreign governments banning tabacco imports to their countries because of cigarette companies influence. We are peddling death to other countries by selling tabacco.

It is proven that Marijuana does have some medicinal value against certain cancers. Not a cure but it aleviates certain symptoms of the diseases. Yet the feds mainly Bush fights against legalizing it as a perscription drug as certain states have voted on. Bush even wants to imprison doctors who perscribe marijuna as a drug even if the State has legalized Marijuna use as a drug.

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People that use illegal drugs are bad people. They are not in prison because of bad laws. Alcohol provides the "high" and "escape" that some feel they need. The fact that they use marijuana or other illegal drugs is becuase they have no respect for the law. If marijuana was made legal these people would continue breaking other laws because the problem isn't the law, it is the law-breakers.

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NO that is not the case. The same argument could be used that people who speed on the highways are bad people. As to Highs there are many ways to get a high legally. Tobacco does that. So does alchohol.

As I have pointed out it is not the lawbreakers but the law that needs changing. Prohibition made alcohol illegal and it made the mafia what it was. When they made alchohol legal it took their profits away. Now they go to other means.

Marijuna is one. I am not advoccating the legalizing of ALL drugs. That would be foolish. Just marijuna. If we ban Marijuna we should ban tobacco to be consistant. If we allow Tobacco we should allow Marijuna. Both are harmful for ones health granted but I doubt Marijuna is any more harmful that tobacco is. It would solve much of the prison problem in overcrowding as a large percentage are there because of the Marijuna usage or growning.

My dad told me that Marijuana grew wild up around Pacific Union College. Every few years the feds would come and comb the woods looking for the plants and uproot them and burn them. But by doing so they scattered the seeds and after the winter rains the plants would be come back in greater abundance than before. So in a way the feds were Marijuana farmers. Should be prosecute the agents who scattered the seeds thereby making sure the plants would come back in greater numbers the following years?

[CyberGuy]

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Prisoners have a debt to pay to society. That debt shouldn't be sitting in a cell, lifting weights and costing the taxpayer money. Now, prisons cannot become self-supporting becuase they just cost too much money to run. The prisoners, with their limited abilities, cannot produce enough to pay for their own security and board. However through hard labor they can and should contribute something. To call that slave labor is insulting to slaves.

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Prisoners are slave labor. Even the constitution banning slave labor exempted prisoners from that amendment

[CyberGuy]

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To deter crime our prisons need to become workhouses. Prisonsers should be sentenced to hard labor. Prisons should have farms that havest agricultural products that are packaged for their use and state food banks for the needy. If prison time was harder, the sentences could be shorter for these minor crimes.

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It does not solve the prison overpopulation does it. That solution will only increase the prison population. The USA has the greatest per capita prison population in the first world.

Since 1998 our prison population has tripled. We have 800 personers per 100,000 people. Read the following web site.

http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&v...0a335FxVswcl0xU

The prison population started going up in 1981 when Reagan took office. That is when the drug wars started. We have more people in prison but has it stopped the drug flow? I think the news will tell you all it has acomplished is more people in prison and higher taxes to support the prisons.

[Dr. Shane]

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Examples of what is described as an involuntary activity could range from being born into slavery, to physical abduction and kidnapping, to lies about the type of work to be performed, to forced indebtedness or the withholding of identity documents, such as a green card.

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Yes, I am familial with the UN's ILO. Notice prison labor is not mentioned. It is insulting to these stuck in forced labor to consider criminals as their peers.

I will give an example of forced labor. A man goes to work for a farmer and the farmer has a company store but everything in the store is expensive so that when it comes time for the workers to get paid they owe everything to the company store. That way they are never free to leave because they always have a debt at the company store. This was common in the coal-mining industry which was the background of Ernie Ford's Sixteen Tons. But we shouldn't insult these hardworker coal miners or migrant workers by elevating prisoners to their level..

According to the UN, prisoners are not to be worked more than their free-counterparts. That would mean 8 hour days and 40 hour weeks. And a part of their earnings is to be set aside for them upon their release. That does not have to be comparable to their free-counterparts. A prison may pay an inmate between 35¢ and 85¢/hour and, according the to UN, not give them the money until they are released.