State attorneys seek authority for Morales execution using one drug

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

February 21, 2006, 11:42 a.m.

SAN JOSE (BCN) - Lawyers for the state of California went back to a federal judge in San Jose this morning to seek authority for corrections officials to carry out an execution tonight using only one drug.

The action followed the postponement early this morning of the execution of convicted murderer and rapist Michael Morales, who was originally scheduled to be put to death shortly after midnight.

The execution was delayed after two anesthesiologists said they could not participate in the procedure because of ethical concerns.

The execution is now scheduled to take place at San Quentin State Prison at 7:30 p.m. with the use of 5 grams of the barbituate sodium pentothal instead of the usual sequence of three lethal drugs.

The state estimates it could take up to 45 minutes for the pentothal alone to cause death.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, in response to a lawsuit filed by Morales, last week gave state officials two options for carrying out the execution in ways aimed at ensuring the inmate does not suffer extreme pain.

One option was to have an anesthesiologist make sure the inmate was unconscious and the second option was to use only sodium pentothal.

State attorneys told the judge in a motion filed this morning that officials want the authority to go ahead with the second option. The attorneys wrote, "There is agreement among the experts that this dose will render Morales unconscious and is fatal."

The attorneys said the thiopental will act as a powerful anesthetic and will not cause pain.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said that if the judge grants the motion, he expects that Morales' legal team may appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Morales, 46, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of a 17-year-old Lodi girl.

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