California moratorium on executions is prolonged

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(05-04) 15:47 PDT SAN JOSE -- The state will not be ready to defend its new lethal injection procedures in court until early next year, prolonging a moratorium on executions in California that has been in effect since January 2006.

State lawyers told a federal judge last week that San Quentin's new warden, Michael Martel, needs more time to select a new team of guards to carry out executions.

Deficiencies in staff training and supervision were among the factors cited by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel when he ruled in 2006 that the state's lethal injection methods posed an undue risk of a botched execution that would leave the inmate conscious and in agony while dying.

Fogel halted the scheduled February 2006 execution of Michael Morales, who had been convicted of raping and murdering a Lodi teenager in 1981, when prison officials were unable to find medical personnel willing to monitor the injections. Other Death Row inmates have joined his challenge to the state's procedures.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/04/BAD61JBTJS.DTL