Controversy May End Calif. Executions

[Judi Lynn]

Controversy May End Calif. Executions

Lethal Injection Controversy Amounts to a Moratorium on the Death Penalty in California

By DAVID KRAVETS

SAN FRANCISCO Feb 22, 2006 (AP)— The state's postponement of an execution because no medical professional would take part amounts to a moratorium on capital punishment in California, home to the nation's largest death row, and could have implications for other states that use lethal injection.

Michael Morales, 46, was scheduled to die Tuesday by injection for torturing, raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl 25 years ago. But officials at San Quentin State Prison could not meet the demands of a federal judge who ordered licensed medical personnel to take part in the execution. Because of ethical considerations, there were no takers, and the execution was called off.

The reprieve meant California, with 650 condemned inmates, awoke Wednesday to what effectively was a moratorium on executions.

The case may eventually place the issue of lethal injection before the U.S. Supreme Court. Thirty-seven of the 38 states with capital punishment use a procedure similar to California's.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1650671

[Book Lover]

1. Good

I applaud every and any method we can employ to stop this abuse of government power.

[Mend]

2. ask cheney's doctor....that guy will obviously do anything eom

[Raine]

7. Self-deleted

put in wrong place.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. It is aginst the code I even took an oath to

they have used EMTs from time to time, (in texas) but boy it is against any code any real medical practitioner has taken... GOOD

[DBoon]

4. Maybe Dr. Frist will step in

He has already proven himelf to be entirely lacking in medical ethics.

[Raine]

8. Good choice

that's right up his alley, he'd be perfect for the job.

[saigon68]

13. Dr Frist is an evil human being

Someone with no soul, ethics or conscience.

He is the devil on earth

[Ernesto]

15. Have you ever seen him smile?

What's that tell ya?

[saigon68]

17. He is a vapid human being

The source of vapid is Latin vapidus, "spiritless, spoiled, flat."

[DBoon]

18. He would make the perfect executioner then

nt

[northzax]

5. it does seem to be the one situation

where you don't need a medical license to prescribe and administer restricted drugs. An interesting loophole. Of course, no Doctor can participate, that whole "first do no harm" thing.

If assisted suicide, where the person WANTS to die, violates the Hippcratic oath, then certainly killing someone who doesn't want to die does.

[mike_c]

6. best news I've heard all day....

eom

[AndyTiedye]

9. Poor Terminator! Not Allowed to Terminate Anyone

:nopity:

[EFerrari]

10. Thank you to all the license holders who said no to this.

[SoCalDem]

11. Time to re-think capital punishment

If we do not plan on actually executing people, then we should just abolish the death penalty.

Life in prisonment without parole seems to be the way to go.

The whole purpose of imprisonment is to isolate them from the public so they cannot harm anyone ever again, and to punish them for their misdeeds.

Killing them does not bring their victims back, and the penalty itself only insures that the victims' families will always be aware that they are "still with us" every time they are "about to be executed" or launching yet another appeal..

Just lock 'em up and make sure they never GET a parole hearing that the victims' families feel compelled to attend..

Make sure they get good justice in the first place and all the DNA testing available BEFORE they get sentenced, and then just lock them up..

There is NO need to kill them..

the very fact that THEIR lives are on the line, CREATES the need to spend endless sums of taxpayer money filing appeal after appeal on their behalf.

Most people who have fallen victim to these people just want them locked away.. Most do not nt vengeance

[Peace Patriot]

12. The Bush junta has committed torture, rape and murder in Guantanamo

Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret prisons around the world, as well as slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent people in the war on Iraq (100,000 in the initial bombing alone, according the British doctors' report).

In addition to these innumerable direct crimes against individuals, they have also killed people indirectly by murderous neglect (Katrina), malfeasance (9/11--if not worse), and many kinds of corruption (resulting, for instance, in lack of armored vests and vehicles for US soldiers sent to Iraq; no medical care for half the US population; malnutrition among poor elders and the young; and environmental pollution).

The word "hypocrite" is, somehow, just not big enough to describe their worship of executing the poor.

[zann725]

14. Or they'll just re-write the "rules"...& let a janitor do injection...

...or somoeone similar..."pretending" to be the "official" they need.

In these Draconian times, in a state where a Disabled elderly inmate was recently executed, I would put NOTHING past Ahnallld's Austrian sense of justice.

[Ernesto]

16. Beautiful Blue California once again leading the nation........

To hell with chimp's "heart land" of sheepish followers.

[Nikia]

19. I was wondering when lethal injection would be challenged

As I understand, they are not allowed to euthanize animals in most states with the drug combo. It seems that the other drugs tend to lessen the effects of the anestetic but leave the victim unable to move or let anyone know that they are in pain. The other drugs due cause a rather painful death. Despite what many people think, lethal injection really can be a cruel and unusual punishment.

[ljaycox]

20. I never thought they should...

medicalize the the process anyway. The law will be changed to something like a firing squad (most humane method) anyway. This will not stop executions in this country as a whole.

[Guaranteed]

21. HA ha! They do it to abortion,

we do it to capital punishment.