Friday - February 24, 2006

Cruel & Unusual Punishment

Mona Charen looks at the current kerfuffle in California over the execution of Michael Morales. A judge has declared that the state must provide a doctor at the time of execution to certify that Morales is unconscious and can feel no pain before the lethal injection can be given. So far, the state has been unable to find a doctor who is willing to violate their Hypocratic Oath. Read the description below of the crime Morales committed ....

They found her body in a vineyard. Her purple sweater was pulled up revealing the knife protruding from her chest. Terri Lynn Winchell had been 17. It was 1981.

Michael Morales, whose execution was indefinitely delayed last week, was convicted of her murder. It was established at trial that Morales, a gang member, had killed Winchell as a favor to his cousin, Rick Ortega. The Modesto Bee reported that Ortega, who knew Winchell’s boyfriend, persuaded the girl to take a drive with him.

When Winchell entered the car, she was introduced to Morales, seated in the back seat. The three joked and chatted for a while, Terri believing that they were going to look for jewelry for her best friend.

But Ortega turned off onto a country road. Morales then reached around the front seat with his belt and began to strangle Terri. She struggled and screamed for Ortega to help her, but he simply continued to drive. (Ortega is now serving a life sentence.)

After about 15 seconds, the belt broke. Morales then pulled out a hammer and began smashing the girl’s skull. He hit her 23 times. When she ceased to struggle, Morales told Ortega to pull over and return in 15 minutes.

He dragged Winchell from the front seat and onto the ground. He then raped her. He started to walk back to the meeting point with Ortega but then thought better of it and went back to the girl. He stabbed her four times in the chest.

------
Morales has been on death row ever since. But a federal judge in California has now cast into question whether he will ever be duly punished as a jury of his peers has directed he should.

Opponents of the death penalty have been rummaging through their bag of tricks and come up with the theory that lethal injection amounts to “cruel” punishment. California had been using a three-drug cocktail to execute criminals. The first, a barbiturate, induces unconsciousness. The other drugs paralyze the muscles and stop the heart.

The drugs typically result in death within about seven minutes. Death penalty opponents argue that if the barbiturate for some reason fails to sedate the criminal, he might experience pain when the other drugs are administered yet be unable to gesture or signal distress due to the paralyzing nature of the other drugs.

- More on this story here ...

The hurdle or sledge was similar to a piece of fencing made from thin branches interwoven to form a panel to which the prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to the place of execution. Once there, the prisoner(s) were hanged in the normal way (i.e. without a drop to ensure that the neck was not broken) but cut down whilst still conscious.

The penis and testicles were cut off and the stomach was slit open. The intestines and heart were removed and burned before them. The other organs were torn out and finally the head was cut off and the body divided into four quarters. The head and quarters were parboiled to prevent them rotting too quickly and then displayed upon the city gates as a grim warning to all.

At some point in this agonising process, the prisoner inevitably died of strangulation and/or haemorrhage and/or shock and damage to vital organs.

“Hanging, drawing and quartering”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/24/2006 at 09:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous •  
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