Vigil to protest postponement of execution

LODI -- Friends and family of murder victim Terri Winchell will gather for a candlelight vigil tonight to protest the indefinite postponement of her killer's execution.

The gathering will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Tokay High School, 1111 W. Century Blvd., where 17-year-old Winchell -- murdered Jan. 8, 1981 -- was a senior.

Convicted murderer and rapist Michael Morales, 46, formerly of Stockton, was scheduled to be executed last week at San Quentin state prison.

At the last minute, the state postponed the execution -- originally set for 12:01 a.m. Feb. 21 -- on the grounds that the lethal-injection process might cause the condemned man pain prior to death.

Speaking at the vigil will be victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred.

"What happened to Terri Winchell is just an outrage," Allred said by phone from her office in Los Angeles. "She was living the life that young people are expected to live. She was doing well in school -- a straight-A student -- and was an innocent victim in all this."

Allred said Winchell's suffering has been lost in the publicity surrounding Morales' execution and the debate over whether lethal injection constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."

"Often, the victim is lost in the process," she said. "This has all become about Mr. Morales and the pain he might suffer. This ignores the pain that Terri must have suffered."

Morales was convicted in 1983 of Winchell's rape and murder in Lodi two years earlier.

He choked her with a belt, using such force that the belt broke, according to court records. When that failed to kill her, he hit her in the face and head 23 times with a hammer before dragging her from a car, raping her, stabbing her four times in the chest and leaving her to die in a vineyard.

Trish Costa, a classmate of Terri's since the seventh grade, said she has grown sick of seeing Morales' "skanky face" on television.

"All we hear about is poor little Mikey and what he's going to go through," she said. "We're sick of his whining and crying, and his crybaby little attitude. The world needs to know who he killed."

Costa said Winchell's story has generated responses from around the world, adding she has been contacted by people in England, Australia and Canada who have promised to light candles in Winchell's memory.

"What Morales and his attorneys are doing is a bunch of crap," Costa said. "This was a brutal, brutal murder. Big deal -- let Morales suffer for what he did. I hope it does hurt."

Costa voiced her agitation for former federal independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who took up Morales' cause.

"California recently executed two other inmates," Costa said. "Why wasn't Kenny Starr arguing for them? What made him come to the defense of Morales?"

Costa said knowing Terri was a gift.

"It's kind of like God said, 'I'm bringing Terri into your guys' life. You can't have her for very long, but she's going to make such an impression, you'll never forget her,'" Costa said. "Now, he's brought her back into our lives in a different way."

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