US execution delayed by legal wranglings

A CONVICTED killer’s execution was postponed for the second time in less than a day amid continuing concerns over the constitutionality of California’s lethal injection policy.

An hour before Michael Morales was to be strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at San Quentin Prison, officials called off the execution, saying they could not comply with a judge’s recent order to have a medical provider administer the fatal dose of barbiturate.

“We were not able to find a licensed professional that was willing to inject medication intravenously, ending the life of a human being,” San Quentin spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Tuesday evening.