It’s getting rather macabre up in San Quentin’s death chamber. For two nights in a row convicted killer Michael Morales was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Two times he didn’t.

His Monday night date with death was postponed at the last moment when two anesthesiologists walked out, stating ethical concerns. They could not in good conscience, they said, carry out their task of monitoring the execution because they didn’t trust the integrity of the lethal dosage system. They feared that Morales might not die quickly and painlessly and that it would fall upon them to re-awaken the prisoner and prepare him for a second jolt.

After Monday night’s snafu, Morales was re-scheduled to be killed late Tuesday night. California state officials then proposed he be executed with a massive dose of just sodium pentathol, a drug that causes death in 30 to 45 minutes instead of the usual 11 minutes it takes when a three-chemical load is used.

Matters got further complicated when, two hours before Tuesday’s execution, a Federal judge imposed new conditions to ward off a botched and painful procedure. He ordered that a licensed medical professional would have to directly inject the barbiturate into Morales’ vein.

But then the state attorney general’s office halted the whole grim show when it said that this was not a recognized medical procedure and no medical professional would be ordered to comply.

Bottom line: Morales’ execution has been put off at least until May when a two-day court hearing is scheduled. What a moment this would be for a vigorous anti-death penalty movement to surge upward in California. But this is an election year and political courage is running as short as compassion.