Lethal injection challenged as 'cruel and unusual' fate.

摘要

A ruling by a California judge that requires a qualified anaesthetist to be present during executions by lethal injection has postponed the planned killing of a convicted murderer-because no medical professionals could be found to participate in the procedure in time. Michael McCarthy reports.California officials have postponed the execution of a convicted murderer by lethal injection after they were unable to find medical personnel willing to participate in the execution.Lawyers for 46-year-old Michael Angelo Morales had sought a stay of execution, arguing that the state's standard execution method exposed the prisoner to excessive pain and therefore violated the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishments".In 1981,Morales, then 21 years old, with his cousin Ricky Ortega, murdered 17-year-old Terri Winchell. According to prosecution testimony, Ortega was angry with Winchell because she had become the girlfriend of his homosexual lover. Morales was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death. Ortega was given a life sentence. Morales' legal appeals and petition for clemency have been rejected.Current California protocol for execution calls forthe administration of 5 g of the barbiturate sodium thiopental to induce unconsciousness, followed by 50 or 100 mg of pancuronium bromide to induce paralysis, and then 50 to 100 milliequivalents of potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest.