"California's new lethal injection protocol tossed by judge," is the title of Carol J. Williams Los Angeles Times report.
A judge on Friday threw out California's new lethal injection protocols, which have been five years in the making, because corrections officials failed to consider a one-drug execution method now in practice in other death penalty states.
In ruling that the new protocols were "invalid," Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal noted that one of the state's own experts recommended the single injection method as being superior to the three-drug sequence approved last year.
State officials now must decide whether to appeal D'Opal's ruling or again revise the lethal injection procedures that were deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2006. The ruling — at least for now, experts say — appears to halt a federal judge's review of whether the changes to the state procedures are sufficient to allow executions to resume after a six-year suspension.
D'Opal criticized the state for ignoring many requirements of the law on revising official procedures, saying that officials failed even to explain why they rejected the one-drug method.
The legal challenge to the revised procedures was brought by condemned inmate Mitchell Sims, who has been on death row for 24 years for the 1985 killings of three Domino's pizza employees, including a deliveryman in Glendale. Sims is one of only a dozen among California's 722 condemned inmates who have exhausted all appeals and are eligible for a death warrant.
Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris' spokeswoman, Lynda Gledhill, said the question of whether to appeal was still under review and that a decision would probably be guided by "what our client wants to do," referring to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said corrections officials had no immediate comment.
"Judge rejects officials' new rules for executions," by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The ruling strengthens a freeze that state and federal courts have imposed on executions in California since the last one took place in January 2006.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose ruled later in 2006 that lethal injections, conducted in a dimly lit chamber by poorly trained and monitored staff, posed an undue risk of a botched execution and a prolonged and agonizing death, in violation of constitutional standards.
Prison officials rewrote their procedures but were sent back to the drawing board in November 2007 by another Marin County judge, who said they had failed to seek public comments, as the law required. After an unsuccessful appeal, officials held hearings and revised the regulations again - but they'll have to start over unless a higher court overturns D'Opal's ruling.
Department spokesman Jeffrey Callison said no decision has been made yet on whether to appeal.
After state officials pass valid regulations, they still must convince a newly assigned federal judge, Richard Seeborg, that the new rules eliminate the risk of cruel and unusual punishment cited by Fogel. State lawyers recently told Seeborg they won't be ready for a hearing until late next year.
The AP filing is, "Marin judge rejects lethal injection procedures," by Paul Elias, via the Oakland Tribune. It's also available via the San Jose Mercury News.
A judge tossed out California's newly adopted lethal injection procedure on Friday, throwing the state's already stalled capital punishment system into further doubt.
Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal, finalizing a tentative ruling she issued a day earlier, said prison officials failed to properly explain why they rejected a one-drug process using only a barbiturate when one of their experts recommended it as being superior to the three-drug mixture that was adopted to execute inmates. The judge wrote that critics of the three-drug lethal injection submitted comments to the department saying one of those three drugs -- pancuronium bromide -- "is unnecessary, dangerous, and creates a risk of excruciating pain."
"Today the court struck down California's three-drug lethal injection protocol because it was enacted in violation of California law," said Sara Eisenberg, an attorney for Mitchell Sims, the condemned inmate who filed the lawsuit challenging the new, three-drug procedure.
"California judge throws out state's lethal injection procedure," by Julie Small of KPCC-FM for Southern California Public Radio.
Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D’Opal says the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to properly explain why it rejected the use of a single barbiturate as an alternative to California’s three-drug lethal injection method.
Attorney Sara Eisenberg persuaded the judge that prison officials had violated California law. "They never explained why they retained the three-drug protocol instead of switching to a single drug protocol that many other states are switching to, that their own internal consultant recommended, and that many members of the public, including medical professionals, recommended."
"Judge rejects California's death-penalty procedure," at CNN.
California's use of a three-drug combination in executing prisoners was declared invalid Friday by a Marin County judge, who ruled that a one-drug method should have been considered.
"The failure to discuss the one-drug method is a particularly significant omission, since use of a barbiturate-only protocol was raised by at least one commenter," wrote Marin County Judge Faye D'Opal in a nine-page ruling, referring to concerns raised during a public-comment period. Citing one of the three drugs used in the combination, she added, "several commenters make the identical assertion that use of pancuronium bromide is unnecessary, dangerous, and creates a risk of excruciating pain." Pancuronium bromide is a painkiller and muscle relaxant that induces paralysis.
D'Opal further noted that the Department of Corrections failed "to provide a sufficient rationale for rejecting these alternatives" and failed to explain "why a one-drug alternative would not be as effective or better than the adopted three-drug procedure."
The challenge decided by the state court was filed in August 2010 on behalf of inmate Michael Sims, who has been on death row for more than 20 years, according to his attorney Sara Eisenberg. She summarized the decision by saying that the current regulations approving the use of the three-drug mix "are invalid."
Earlier coverage of California lethal injection issues begins at the link.
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