Efforts to revive death penalty in California dealt another blow

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEuQVjkOcE0ExTqYKJM05HKJABjJrl0_Eo-ADN6dqwnYTZca4TAKvW9N2Dq5j0HCdixVHF25-U58F907C1Iai8p0boPVBQHh-Rmys0xKkv3suhg5qAq9KyqjIKlK5DoF3gaL3uq80vWs/s1600/lethal+injection+room+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="San Quentin's death chamber" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEuQVjkOcE0ExTqYKJM05HKJABjJrl0_Eo-ADN6dqwnYTZca4TAKvW9N2Dq5j0HCdixVHF25-U58F907C1Iai8p0boPVBQHh-Rmys0xKkv3suhg5qAq9KyqjIKlK5DoF3gaL3uq80vWs/s400/lethal+injection+room+01.jpg" title="San Quentin's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Quentin's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><i>California rejects proposed new death penalty rules</i><br /><br />Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were dealt another blow late last month when a state agency tasked with reviewing regulatory changes rejected a proposed new lethal injection protocol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision by the Office of Administrative Law came one day after the California Supreme Court blocked <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article122056059.html" target="_blank">implementation</a> of Proposition 66, an initiative passed by voters in November to expedite capital punishment, pending the outcome of a lawsuit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a 25-page decision of disapproval released on Dec. 28, the OAL cited inconsistencies and ambiguities in the protocol, insufficient justification for some regulations and a need for further response to public comments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has four months to resubmit its proposal. Spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the department plans to fix the issues identified by the OAL.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions were halted in 2006 because of legal challenges alleging that California’s lethal injection method violated the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The corrections department began <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article56086860.html" target="_blank">developing a new protocol</a> last year that replaced its old three-drug cocktail with a 7.5-gram, single-drug dose of one of four barbiturates: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the questions raised by the OAL was why inmates would be injected with 7.5 grams of a barbiturate when corrections officials acknowledged 5 grams is a sufficiently lethal dose. It also asked for additional explanations on a $50 limit for inmates’ last meals and why inmates would be offered the option of taking a sedative before the execution begins.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The majority of the decision focused on ambiguities in the protocol that the OAL said needed to be clarified. These included the timeline for steps taken in the days and hours leading up to an execution, how to proceed if an inmate does not immediately die, what sedative options are available and who must administer them, what proposed monthly “security and operational inspections” of the execution chamber would entail, and under what conditions a warden should raise inquiry into an inmate’s sanity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article124564724.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee</a>, Alexei Koseff, January 4, 2017</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Efforts to revive death penalty in California dealt another blow

San Quentin's death chamber California rejects proposed new death penalty rules Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were d...

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California Supreme Court halts voter-approved death penalty measure

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jjdgSQCxwcLVyYwUZX_RDVz8ToUSrKRktHHX41uMQN9TO4-oHwxO_TSDBJzv_sjxb6psZ6ZdwR3HtuolWoZeILjKpOD3d1W1rxx-z2s698FT1CzuXJsbrZFKJJpFZVrkWLFDRYQVFmI/s1600/Robert+Galvan+San+Quentin+DR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="San Quentin Prison's death row" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jjdgSQCxwcLVyYwUZX_RDVz8ToUSrKRktHHX41uMQN9TO4-oHwxO_TSDBJzv_sjxb6psZ6ZdwR3HtuolWoZeILjKpOD3d1W1rxx-z2s698FT1CzuXJsbrZFKJJpFZVrkWLFDRYQVFmI/s400/Robert+Galvan+San+Quentin+DR.jpg" title="San Quentin Prison's death row" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Quentin Prison's death row</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The California Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a voter-approved measure intended to speed up the appeals process for the state's death row inmates to give it time to consider a lawsuit challenging the measure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a one-page decision, the court stayed the "implementation of all provisions of Proposition 66" and set a timeline for filing briefs in the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Proposition 66 would change how appeals are handled, appointing more lawyers to take cases, putting certain types of appeals before trial court judges and setting a five-year deadline for appeals to be heard. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, it can take longer than that for an attorney to be assigned to a case and upward of 25 years to exhaust appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lawsuit by former California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and Ron Briggs, whose father wrote the ballot measure that expanded California's death penalty in 1978, said the reform measure would disrupt the courts, cost more money and limit the ability to mount proper appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said the deadlines would set "an inordinately short timeline for the courts to review those complex cases" and result in attorneys cutting corners in their investigations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Supporters of the measure have called the lawsuit a frivolous stall tactic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">California voters faced two death penalty measures in the November election. They rejected a measure that would have abolished the death penalty and narrowly approved Proposition 66.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, December 20, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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California Supreme Court halts voter-approved death penalty measure

San Quentin Prison's death row The California Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a voter-approved measure intended to speed up the appeals...

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