US: Prison authorities in California were yesterday forced to reschedule the execution of convicted murderer Michael Morales after it was delayed by a disagreement with medical personnel.
The execution was called off at 2am yesterday, two hours after it was due to begin at San Quentin prison near San Francisco, after two anaesthetists who had agreed to attend the execution withdrew, citing compelling ethical concerns.
"While we contemplated a positive role that might enable us to verify a humane execution protocol for Mr Morales, what is being asked of us now is ethically unacceptable," they said in a statement.
Under a federal court order issued last week, the anaesthetists could have been obliged to intervene should Morales have regained consciousness or shown signs of pain during the execution procedure. "Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical," the medical personnel said.
"As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process."
Californian state authorities rescheduled the execution yesterday for 7.30pm (3.30am Irish time), opting for a different procedure that would not require the presence of anaesthetists.
The state had until midnight yesterday to execute Morales, who was found guilty of the
1981 rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl.
The death warrant expires today.
Officials would have to go back to the original trial judge who imposed the death penalty at the 1983 trial to obtain another death warrant. But that judge, Charles McGrath, has since changed his mind about the sentence, and wrote to the state governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking for clemency. The request was denied.
The anaesthetists agreed to be present at the execution after lawyers for Morales argued that the lethal injection procedure used in California constituted "cruel and unusual punishment", which is banned by the US constitution.
The debate over "cruel and unusual punishment" came to prominence after the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams in December.
That procedure was marred by errors, as prison staff took 12 minutes to find a vein in Williams's arm.