A federal judge issued a memorandum of intended decision [PDF text] Friday, concluding that California's lethal injection procedure creates "an undue and unnecessary risk" of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment [text] of the US Constitution. The memorandum came in the case of condemned killer Michael Morales [NCADP profile], who argued that it was not certain that the chemical cocktail to be used in his lethal injection [JURIST news archive] would not prevent him from experiencing extreme pain during the process. Morales' execution was postponed indefinitely [JURIST report] in February after a court ruling that medical professionals must monitor executions by lethal injection to be sure that the inmate feels no pain. The ruling imposed a virtual moratorium on executions in California [JURIST report] as anesthesiologists refused to take part [JURIST report] in the execution.
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