Delay of execution for Morales

FEBRUARY 21, 2006 - Michael Morales was not executed last night because the anesthesiologists that had agreed to participate in the execution walked out after determining that what was being asked of them was "unethical". The state has rescheduled the execution for TODAY, FEBRUARY 21ST AT 7:30PM. The state now plans to proceed with the execution using only sodium thiopental or some combination of barbiturates. This is the first time ever that a state plans to carry out an execution using only barbiturates.

Under a new procedure ordered by a federal judge last week, prison officials retained an anesthesiologist to be in the death chamber to certify that Morales would be unconscious from a sedative before another doctor administered a paralyzing agent and the drug designed to stop Morales' heart.

The change was made after Morales and his attorneys argued that the three-part lethal injection cocktail used in California and 35 other states violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. They said a prisoner would feel excruciating pain from the last two chemicals if he were not fully sedated.

The execution, which had been planned for just after midnight, was delayed for at least an hour to give the anesthesiologists additional training, Crittendon said.

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

The state then proposed to execute Morales with a massive dose of the barbiturate sodium pentothal, which it said would render him unconscious quickly and cause death within 30 to 45 minutes.