Under a federal court order issued last week the anaesthesiologists could have been obliged to intervene should Morales regain consciousness or show signs of pain.

“Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical,” they said. “As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process.”

California state authorities rescheduled the execution for 7.30pm yesterday (3.30am Wednesday British time), opting for a different procedure that would not require anaesthesiologists.

The state has until midnight on Tuesday to execute Morales, who was found guilty of the 1981 rape and murder of a 17-year-old woman. The death warrant expires today. Officials would have to go back to the original trial judge who imposed the death penalty at the 1983 trial to obtain another warrant. But that judge, Charles McGrath, has since changed his mind about the sentence, and wrote to the state governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking for clemency. The request was denied.

A few minutes later, as darkness began to fall, Morales asked the question: “When are you getting an eight-track for your car?” He then lurched forward and wrapped his leather belt around Winchell’s neck. He pulled and pulled.

Ortega couldn’t bring himself to watch but heard the girl struggle against the grip. After about 15 seconds, the belt broke. That’s when Morales pulled out a hammer.

He slammed the hammer against Winchell’s head – over and over. Twenty-three times.

She screamed for Ortega to help her and tried to fend off the assault, even ripping out her own hair. Ortega kept driving. Morales eventually beat her unconscious, crushing her skull.

Then, Ortega pulled over. Morales told him to drive away and come back in 15 minutes.

He dragged Winchell from the front seat and across the roadway, face-down, into the vineyard. He then raped her.

Morales began walking away from the girl, but decided to turn around. He pulled out a kitchen knife and plunged it into her chest – four times. “To make sure she died,” according to the state attorney general’s report.

Christian waited for her daughter to come home. By 8 p.m., she said she knew something had happened. By midnight, she could feel her daughter was gone.

“It’s a feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, like your insides are ripped out,” she said. “That feeling has never left.”

Starr said he took the case in January, after consulting with David Senior, an attorney who was already a part of the case. Starr created a clemency request and reviewed included materials, which asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute Morales’ sentence to life in prison without parole, rather than carrying out his death penalty conviction.

Starr said Morales, now 46, was influenced by his cousin to commit the crime, and was using PCP and drinking at the time of the murder. He later expressed remorse for the crime, has returned to his Christian upbringing and maintains relationships with his three adult children.