The execution of Michael Morales, 46, had been scheduled for 12.01 a.m. Tuesday after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. courts denied his final appeals.
But the two anaesthesiologists cited concerns over a last-minute ruling by a judge who ordered them to intervene in the event that Morales woke up or appeared to be in pain from the administering of the lethal combination of drugs.
'Any such intervention would be medically unethical. As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process... What is being asked of us is ethically unacceptable,' the doctors said in a statement released by authorities in San Quentin Prison.
Judge Jeremey Fogel issued the ruling on Monday to ensure that the three-drug cocktail typically used for executions did not violate the constitution's ban on 'cruel and unusual' punishment.
But he also gave prison authorities the option of putting Morales to death by giving him an overdose of sedatives. Officials have rescheduled the execution for Tuesday evening and plan to use this alternative method.
If the execution does not take place before midnight Tuesday the death warrant will expire. A new judge would then have to review the case and decide whether to set another execution date.
Morales has confessed to the 1981 crimes, but claims he was high on alcohol and the hallucinatory drug PCP at the time. The original judge in the case supported his appeal for clemency which was denied by Schwarzenegger on Monday.
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