Attorney: Execution team didn't read
lethal injection guide

By Jason Bennert, Bay City News Service

September 29, 2006

SAN JOSE (BCN) - The individual who sets the rate that the drugs in California's lethal injection procedure drip into the condemned inmate's vein is the maintenance man at San Quentin State Prison, the attorney for condemned inmate Michael Morales said today.

Attorney John Grele made the statement during the cross-examination of Dr. Robert Singler, a Napa anesthesiologist called as an expert witness by the attorney for the state of California.

"Were you aware of the fact that it is the maintenance man at San Quentin that sets the drip rate," Grele said.

Singler answered that he knew that a member of the execution team set the drip rate but he did not know what that individual's job was at San Quentin besides being on the execution team.

Grele also told Singler that the execution team has not read the state's written guide describing the steps of the lethal injection procedure.

"No team member has read the protocol," Grele said. Grele's cross-examination came on the final day of a four-day hearing held in San Jose this week before U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel. Fogel must determine if California's proposed lethal injection procedure is legal or if it is an unconstitutional example of "cruel and unusual punishment" because of the possibility that the condemned inmates could experience excruciating pain if they are not fully sedated when the lethal drugs are injected into their veins.

In February, Fogel effectively halted Morales' execution only hours before he was scheduled to be strapped onto the gurney by ordering a "qualified individual" be present in the execution chamber to monitor Morales' level of sedation. State officials approached Singler and another anesthesiologist but the pair ultimately declined to be present at the execution on ethical grounds.

Morales is on death row for the 1981 rape and murder of 17-year-old Lodi resident Terri Winchell.

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred is attending today's hearing with members of Winchell's family.

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