'De facto moratorium' on Calif. executions

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- California's attorney general believes a legal challenge to lethal injection as cruel and unusual is likely to bar any executions in 2006.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has scheduled a hearing for May in the case of Michael Morales. Morales' execution for the rape and murder of Terri Winchell 23 years ago was postponed this week because the state was unable to meet Fogel's requirement of having doctors participate.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said even if Fogel rules the execution can proceed, his finding is likely to be appealed, the Sacramento Bee reported.

"This de facto moratorium is upsetting, certainly to Terri Winchell's family and other victims," Barankin said. "But it's also an opportunity for the state to conclusively resolve this question -- that lethal injection is the safest and most humane method of carrying out the sentence."

Mitchell Carlton Sims, who was expected to be put to death later this year for killing a pizza deliveryman in 1985, is also likely to get a reprieve, the newspaper said.