California’s latest attempt at a death-penalty drug is rejected

Proposed rules for single-drug executions in California were rejected Monday by a state legal agency whose decision may soon be nullified by an initiative approved by state voters last November.

State prison officials have been trying to rewrite their regulations since a federal judge halted implementation of California’s death penalty in 2006, finding flaws in staff training and procedures that created the risk of a prolonged and agonizing execution.

The state has nearly 750 inmates on Death Row, and courts have rejected final appeals on the convictions and sentences of at least 18 of those inmates.

With lethal drugs increasingly scarce, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration settled a lawsuit by murder victims’ families by switching from the previous three-drug executions to a single dose of a powerful barbiturate.

Prison officials drafted procedures to use one of two possible drugs, to be obtained from private pharmacies. They received thousands of public comments, mostly critical, and then submitted them to the state office that reviews new state regulations for their compliance with the law.

On Monday, the Office of Administrative Law vetoed the procedures for the second time, issuing a brief notice that the prison department “did not resolve all necessity and clarity issues.” The office said it would explain its reasoning within a week.

Meanwhile, however, 51 percent of the state’s voters in November approved Proposition 66, a measure designed to speed up executions, while rejecting a competing initiative to abolish the death penalty.

The state Supreme Court upheld some provisions of Prop. 66 in August, including one that eliminates the need for regulatory review of one-drug executions.

Opponents of the measure have asked for a rehearing, and the court has delayed implementation until at least Nov. 22 while it considers the request. But if the ruling stands, Monday’s action will have no effect.

The dispute over execution procedures would then move to federal court, where lawyers for the condemned prisoners would renew their arguments against California’s proposed injection procedures.

“The whole thing is stupid,” death penalty supporter Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and an author of Prop. 66, said of the regulatory review process. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has approved similar execution drugs and procedures in other states.

On the other side, David Crawford of the anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Focus endorsed the state office’s decision.

“We’ve known all along that (the proposed procedure) was deeply problematic, and that it increased the risk of botched executions and secret drug deals like we’ve seen in other states,” Crawford said. “We’re coming up on a year since the election and nothing has changed, except that we’ve wasted another $150 million” in maintaining Death Row.

Source: SFGATE, Bob Egelko, October 9, 2017. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

California regulators reject new lethal injection method

California regulators for the 2nd time Monday rejected a proposed new method of carrying out the death penalty by lethal injection, another move that slows the process for California to resume executing death row inmates.

A voter-backed initiative aimed at speeding up executions, though, may render the regulators' decision moot.

The Office of Administrative Law did not elaborate in its 3-paragraph decision rejecting the rules. But officials previously said the proposal wasn't clear on how the execution team would be selected and trained; how the drugs would be obtained and administered; and how a condemned inmate should be treated in the days and hours before the execution.

Those issues were raised during the 1st rejection in December.

California has nearly 750 inmates on death row, but only 13 have been executed since 1978, the last in 2006. Since then, death penalty foes and supporters have engaged in a push-pull over when and how to resume executions, if at all.

One of those fights is over the method of executing inmates.

State and federal judges have barred the old method of using a series of 3 drugs, prompting the need for new rules.

The regulations up for approval Monday would have allowed condemned inmates to be executed using 1 of 2 powerful barbiturates. Inmates could also choose the gas chamber.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which sued to force the new rules, thinks it shouldn't be necessary for regulators to consider the latest proposal.

He said the regulations must be approved by state and federal judges.

"This is stupid," he said. "This additional layer of bureaucracy is completely unnecessary."

The state Supreme Court in August upheld Proposition 66 ending the requirement that prison officials receive approval from state regulators. Death penalty opponents asked the judges to reconsider it with a Nov. 22 deadline, but Scheidegger expects the justices to uphold their earlier ruling.

If so, Monday's regulatory rejection won't add much delay, he said.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the state will continue following the regulatory process while waiting to see what the justices decide.

If the high court ruling stands, the next step would be for state officials to ask a federal judge and a Marin County Superior Court judge to lift separate injunctions that blocked California's old way of executing inmates using a combination of 3 lethal drugs.

Critics have complained that Democratic office-holders have delayed the rules for years because they are in no rush to resume executions.

The latest rejection shows the proposed rules remain "deeply flawed on many levels and is further evidence that California is in no position to resume executions," Ana Zamora, the American Civil Liberties Union's criminal justice policy director, said in an email.

Source: mcclatchydc.com, October 10, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.