Ruling that the cur­rent mix of drugs used to car­ry out California’s lethal injec­tions may con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ordered California to alter its lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures before it car­ries out the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Michael Morales on February 21. Fogel, who said he is trou­bled by the prospect that inmates may be con­scious and under­go­ing extreme pain once a par­a­lyz­ing agent and then a heart-stop­ping drug are admin­is­tered dur­ing exe­cu­tions, ordered the state to either have an expert present to ensure that Morales is uncon­scious from the seda­tive or to replace the state’s three-drug exe­cu­tion mix with a sin­gle lethal dose of a bar­bi­tu­rate. The rul­ing gave the state until the end of Wednesday (Feb. 15) to choose an expert, or until Thursday to choose the sin­gle-drug method. If the state does not com­ply with his order, Fogel will stay the exe­cu­tion and have hear­ings on whether the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols are cru­el and unusal pun­ish­ment. (Associated Press, February 14, 2006). Read Judge Fogel’s Order. See Methods of Execution. UPDATE: California has elect­ed to have an anes­the­si­ol­o­gist present for the exe­cu­tion to monitor unconsciousness.

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