Michael Angelo Morales
(born October 17, 1959) is a convicted murderer who was
scheduled to be executed by the State of California at 7:30 p.m.
on February 21, 2006. Two hours before the scheduled execution,
the State of California notified the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals that they could not comply with a lower federal judge's
ruling that the execution must be carried out by a medical
professional due to the chemical used in the execution.
Consequently, California has indefinitely
suspended Morales' execution. The case subsequently led to a
moratorium on capital punishment in California entirely, as the
only legal method of execution must be carried out with the
participation of a licensed physician, who are ethically
prohibited from participating in executions.
The crime
Michael Angelo Morales has
been convicted of murdering 17-year-old Terri Winchell on
January 8, 1981, a crime to which it is claimed he has denied.
Terri Winchell's boyfriend at the time was also secretly
involved in a gay relationship with Richard Ortega, a cousin of
Morales. Ortega hired Morales to kill Winchell so that Ortega
could have a sole relationship with his male lover.
According to prosecutors, Ortega invited
Winchell to accompany him on a shopping excursion. Morales, who
was also in the automobile, attacked Winchell from the rear seat
behind her and tried to strangle her with his belt. When the belt
broke, Morales then struck her multiple times in the head with a
hammer, beating her into unconsciousness, and crushing the
victim's skull. Ortega and Morales then drove to an isolated area,
where Morales dragged Winchell facedown across the road and into a
vineyard, where he raped her and stabbed her four times in the
chest. Winchell died from both the head and chest wounds.
Within two days of the murder, Morales was
arrested at his residence. The police found Morales’ broken belt,
containing Terri Winchell’s blood, hidden under a bedroom mattress.
The police also found three knives, the hammer bearing traces of
blood hidden in the refrigerator vegetable crisper, and blood-stained
floor mats from Ortega’s car in the trash. Terri’s purse and
credit card were also in the house. Ortega’s blood-spattered car
was impounded. Morales had used $11 from Terri’s purse to buy beer,
wine, and cigarettes on the night of the murder.
Trial
and appeals
Morales has
not denied that he committed the crime. His defense team argued,
however, that since he was high on PCP at the time, the murder
does not qualify for the "special circumstances" required
against California state law for the death penalty. Morales'
defense argued that the crime was not premeditated.
The
prosecution countered with evidence showing that Morales
gathered tools before the encounter, practiced strangulation on
Morales' girlfriend and another female acquaintance, and
confessed to an informant while in jail.
Charles
McGrath, the judge who originally sentenced Morales to
execution, has announced that he has had a change of heart in
the case. He now says he now doubts the testimony of an
informant against Morales.
Notably, the
informant claimed that Morales confessed to him in Spanish, a
language Morales does not speak. McGrath has asked Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger to grant Morales clemency under state law. In
addition, Morales has claimed that he has found God in prison,
and regrets the crime that he committed.
Former
Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr is one of Morales'
attorneys on the appeals. In February 2006, the defense team
filed papers claiming that five out of the 12 jurors had doubts
about sentencing him to death.
However,
prosecutors alleged that all of the documents were forgeries,
and one juror expressed shock on radio's John and Ken Show
when told that she had allegedly been one of the jurors with the
doubts.
Following
that, calls were made to Pepperdine University, where Starr
works, urging them to investigate Starr's involvement in the
forgeries. After standing by the documents for one week, Starr
and his team withdrew the documents. Ultimately, clemency was
denied, but the phony documents were not used in the rationale.
Postponed
execution
Morales'
original execution date of February 21, 2006, was postponed as a
result of two court-appointed anesthesiologists withdrawing from
the procedure.
This is the
first death row inmate since a judge ruled that the current
combination of drugs may cause severe pain, as corroborated by
an April 2005 study published in the British medical journal,
The Lancet. The doctors cited ethical reasons for the
decision to withdraw.
They had been
ordered by the court to intervene in the event Morales woke up
or appeared to be in pain. Since both doctors withdrew,
California planned to overdose Morales on intravenous
barbiturates, the only other option allowed by the court.
The judge
further ruled that the barbiturates could only be administered
by a "licensed medical professional," meaning a doctor, nurse or
other medical technician legally authorized to administer IV
medications.
In a sense,
that qualification virtually assured that the execution could
not take place. Having failed to find a medical professional
willing to carry out the execution, California decided it could
not comply with the judge's decision and would allow the death
warrant to lapse. The death warrant will now have to be
re-issued by the original trial judge, Charles McGrath, who has
indicated that he no longer believes testimony from the 1982
trial and asked for clemency for Morales.
Wikipedia.org
Michael
Morales was convicted of raping and murdering 17-year-old
Terri Winchell in January 1981. On January 8, 1981, twenty-one-year-old
Michael Morales murdered and raped seventeen year-old Terri Lynn
Winchell, with his nineteen-year-old cousin, Rick Ortega.
In early 1980,
Ortega and a seventeen-year-old male named Randy had a
homosexual relationship. During this time, Randy also had a
dating relationship with Terri Winchell. While Terri didn’t know
about the homosexual relationship of Randy and Ortega, Ortega
knew about Randy’s and Terri’s relationship.
Ortega was
extremely jealous of this relationship. Ortega and Morales
conspired to murder Terri as “pay back” for Terri’s involvement
with Randy. Ortega and Randy had a stormy relationship. Ortega
reacted in threatening manner to Randy’s attempts to end their
relationship. Ortega was also openly hostile towards Terri.
In the weeks
before the murder, Ortega set up a ruse to trick Terri into
believing that Ortega wanted to make amends and become her
friend. Morales “practiced” how he was going to strangle Terri,
and told his girlfriend on the day of the murder how he was
going to strangle and “hurt” someone.
The day of the
murder, Ortega tricked Terri into accompanying him and Morales
in Ortega’s car to a remote area near Lodi, California. There,
Morales attacked Terri from behind and attempted to strangle her
with his belt. Terri struggled and the belt broke in two.
Morales then
took out a hammer and began hitting Terri in the head with it.
She screamed for Ortega to help and attempted to fight off the
attack, ripping her own hair out of her scalp in the struggle.
Morales beat Terri into unconsciousness, crushing her skull and
leaving 23 identifiable wounds in her skull.
Morales took
Terri from the car and instructed Ortega to leave and come back
later. Ortega left and Morales then dragged Terri face-down
across the road and into a vineyard. Morales then raped her
while she lay unconscious. Morales then started to leave, but
went back and stabbed Terri four times in the chest to make sure
she died.
Morales then
left Terri, calling her “a fucking bitch,” as he walked away.
Terri died from both the head and chest wounds. Her body was
left in the vineyard naked from the waist down, with her sweater
and bra pulled up over her breasts. Morales confessed to killing
Terri to a jailhouse informant, as well as to his girlfriend and
his housemate.
Morales
threatened both women prior to his trial so they would not
testify about what he told them. Specifically, he admitted that
he sat behind Terri after she had been lured into Ortega’s car,
he put his belt around Terri’s neck and strangled her until the
belt broke, he repeatedly hit her over the head with a hammer
until she was unconscious, he took her out of the car and
dragged her into a vineyard, he raped her, and he left her but
then returned to be “sure” she was dead.
Within two days
of the murder, Morales was arrested at his residence. The police
found Morales’ broken belt, containing Terri’s blood, hidden
under a bedroom mattress. The police also found three knives,
the hammer bearing traces of blood hidden in the refrigerator
vegetable crisper, and blood-stained floor mats from Ortega’s
car in the trash. Terri’s purse and credit card were also in the
house.
Ortega’s blood-spattered
car was impounded. Morales had used $11 from Terri’s purse to
buy beer, wine, and cigarettes on the night of the murder.
Ortega, tried separately, was sentenced to life in prison.
Morales had
been previously convicted of felony burglary on October 4, 1979
and sentenced to prison. Shortly after killing Terri Lynn
Winchell, Morales was convicted of two counts of robbery for
which he was eventually sentenced to state prison.
In that case,
Morales entered a market to purchase beer. When a store clerk
would not allow him to purchase beer, he left and later returned
with two companions. Morales and the two others held the clerk,
put a knife to his face, hit him with a milk crate and kicked
him.
One of his
companions then knocked down a pregnant female clerk who
suffered numerous head and facial cuts. The total loss of money,
merchandise and equipment damage was $2,529.
Terri
Winchell’s family and friends, who expect that the execution
will happen, gathered Saturday at her grave – some with flowers,
others with balloons – to celebrate her life and say a final
goodbye. “When we graduated high school, a lot of us put a white
rose in our bouquet in honor or Terri. We’re still carrying our
white rose for Terri,” said Trish Costa, a classmate of
Winchell’s. “We’re gonna go to our high school reunion. We’re
gonna look for our fellow classmates, the first thing on your
mind is, Terri is not here.”
Terri
Winchell's mother, Barbara Christian said, “I’m so glad this is
coming to a close. All the news and notoriety is just making it
like the crime happened yesterday.” Terri’s father, Mack
Winchell, said she was a “lovely, vivacious young lady,” who
always found time to spend with both her parents, who divorced
when she was young. “In all of these years, no one has contacted
our family and said sorry,” said Bradley Winchell, brother of
the victim.
Brian Pratt,
another relative, is unsympathetic to arguments by Morales and
his attorneys that the execution ought to be called off. “I
think they ought to bring back hanging or electrocution for this
type of crime,” said Pratt. “He’ll get what he deserves.”
Jacqueline Miles, a family friend said, “He’s the monster that
killed the beauty, and he needs to pay for a crime that was
senseless. We need to actually show the world that people can’t
get away with murdering people just because they get mad.”
