California court case puts lethal injection under threat

[cal04]

Evidence of poor staff training and conscious prisoners adds to concern over method of execution
The lethal injection as a method of execution is coming under sustained attack in evidence given to a court in California, which could determine whether the procedure is dropped in the state with the largest death row population in the US.

Lethal injection has come under scrutiny in several of the 37 states where it is used, amid growing evidence that it could violate the US constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment".

Last week Judge Jeremy Fogel, presiding over a US district court in the California city of San Jose, heard the case of Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell. His execution was called off at the last minute in February after two medical professionals refused to take part, saying it would violate their professional oath.

The court heard that the person responsible for delivering the lethal mixture of chemicals into the arms of condemned prisoners at San Quentin prison, near San Francisco, was the prison's maintenance man. It was also told that the head of the prison's executions team had been diagnosed with clinical depression and was taking antidepressants at the time of the last scheduled execution, and that none of the members of the execution team had read the state's lethal injection protocol.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1887887,00.html