Thanks to Rev. George W. Brooks for forwarding these articles.
This e-mail contains news articles from
LA Times
San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... p15,1,2008
969.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
September 15, 2007
Hearing delay could extend ban on executions
Decision by a federal judge means the court's ban on executions could stretch
to two years. He plans to visit the new death chamber.
By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A federal judge Friday postponed a major hearing on the state's new lethal
injection protocol, making it highly likely that a court-ordered moratorium on
executions in California will stretch to at least two years.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose pushed the hearing back from Oct.
1 to Dec. 10 and 11. The judge also scheduled a formal visit Nov. 19 to a new
death chamber under construction by the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation.
Executions were halted in February 2006 in response to condemned inmate
Michael Morales' legal challenge to the state's lethal injection procedures.
Fogel last December ruled that the procedures violated the constitutional bar
against cruel and unusual punishment.
The state is trying to develop a new protocol, in part by building a death
chamber to replace the one at San Quentin State Prison, which Fogel found was
poorly lighted and designed as well as overcrowded.
Fogel's decision to postpone the October hearing came after a status
conference with lawyers from the attorney general's office and Morales, who
has been on death row for close to a quarter-century for the 1981 murder of
Lodi teenager Terri Winchell.
California, like three dozen other states, uses a three-drug cocktail for
lethal injections.
The first drug, sodium thiopental, is a fast-acting barbiturate that is
supposed to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the other drugs --
pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the body, and potassium chloride, which
causes cardiac arrest -- are administered.
The critical issue in the case, Fogel wrote in his December ruling, was
whether the procedure, as administered, "provides constitutionally adequate
assurance that condemned inmates will be unconscious when they are injected"
with the painful second and third drugs.
The judge said evidence developed in the case revealed that there were a
number of "critical deficiencies" in how the state administers the procedure,
including inconsistent and unreliable screening of execution team members, a
lack of meaningful training for the team and improper mixing of the first
drug.
In May, California corrections officials, after consulting with the governor's
office and the attorney general's office, issued a new lethal injection
protocol that they said "will result in the dignified end of life."
In July, however, Morales' attorneys asserted in a brief that the new
procedures are "even more ill-conceived and deficient than the older
versions."
The following month, Morales' attorneys requested that their challenge to the
new procedure be postponed until May to allow for pre-hearing discovery.
One of the attorneys, David Senior, explained that state officials, in
response to interrogatories, had indicated that the corrections department had
not picked a new lethal injection team or a team leader; had not resumed work
on a new execution chamber after it was halted amid controversy; and "have
refused to identify who is responsible for constructing the chamber."
Senior said the two sides disagree about what material the state is obligated
to turn over to Morales' lawyers in advance of the hearing. He said the
attorney general's office had given the defense team a 157-page list of items
that it considered legally privileged.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Michael Quinn countered in a reply that the hearing should
not wait and that the state had turned over thousands of pages of material. On
Friday, Quinn reiterated those positions and said the privilege claims had
been pared to 104 pages.
Quinn also said it was his understanding that the new execution team would be
selected by Oct. 1 and would start training the following week.
"What would be at issue at the hearing" in December are the differences
between the new protocol and the old one and "whether the new one is
sufficient to address" the deficiencies identified in the court's decision
last December, Fogel said.
Also Friday, it was disclosed that a Superior Court judge in Marin County has
set a hearing Oct. 24 to hear a companion lawsuit alleging that state
officials violated the California Administrative Procedure Act when they
devised the execution protocol. In June, Fogel said he would not issue a
ruling on the legal challenge to the new execution protocol until the Marin
County suit is resolved.
The judge was concerned that if he ruled first, the state court could "pull
the rug out" by holding that corrections officials had violated state law.
Fogel expressed the hope Friday that a ruling would be issued in the state
case before his hearings began Dec. 10.
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henry.weinstein@latimes.com
/ / / / /
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... HS6Q1U.DTL
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Judge wants more time to study new injection procedure for inmates
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
California's moratorium on executions was extended an additional 10 weeks
Friday when a federal judge rescheduled a hearing to December on the state's
new lethal injection procedures.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose pushed the planned two-day
hearing to Dec. 10 from Oct. 1 to allow him to inspect a new death chamber at
San Quentin State Prison. That inspection will happen Nov. 19.
The chamber was due to be completed by mid-September, but construction was
held up when the Legislature was late in passing the new state budget.
The state has not executed anyone since Clarence Ray Allen was put to death in
January 2006 for ordering three murders from his prison cell in 1980.
Fogel imposed a moratorium in February 2006 when he granted a stay of
execution to Michael Morales, convicted of raping and murdering 17-year-old
Terri Winchell near Lodi in 1981.
In December, Fogel ruled that lethal injections in California were conducted
so haphazardly, by poorly trained staff in chaotic conditions, that they posed
an unacceptable risk of a botched execution that would leave the inmate
conscious and in excruciating pain as a final dose of chemicals stopped his
heart.
State officials announced new procedures in May, including changes in staff
selection and training, adjustments in doses of the chemicals, and the
stationing of a staff member at the inmate's side to make sure he is
unconscious.
They said many of the problems Fogel cited could be solved by replacing the
San Quentin execution room, which used to be a gas chamber, with a larger
structure that would be better lit and easier to monitor.
The moratorium on executions is likely to last well into 2008, as whatever
Fogel decides is certain to be appealed. California has 667 inmates on Death
Row, most of whom are still in the early stages of their appeals.
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E-mail Bob Egelko at
begelko@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6896460
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Legal showdown means no California executions this year
By Howard Mintz
The legal showdown over California's lethal injection method has been pushed
back to later this year, when a San Jose federal judge plans to tour San
Quentin's new death chamber and hold two days of hearings to consider whether
the state should be allowed to resume executions.
The latest delay in the lethal injection challenge ensures that there will be
no executions in California this year and, given the likelihood of
time-consuming appeals, it raises doubts over whether any death row inmates
will face firm execution dates in 2008.
During a hearing this afternoon, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel scheduled a
Nov. 19 trip to San Quentin to examine the new execution chamber, which is
under construction and expected to be completed earlier that month. Fogel also
postponed a planned October hearing in the case to Dec. 10.
Fogel put executions on hold indefinitely last December, when he ruled that
California's lethal injection procedure is so flawed it risks violating the
ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Fogel's decision came after a lengthy
round of hearings last fall and a tour of San Quentin.
The lethal injection case began in February 2006, when condemned killer
Michael Morales was on the brink of execution for the 1981 rape and murder of
a 17-year-old Lodi girl. Fogel put Morales' execution on hold to consider the
lethal injection issue, which has been raised in death penalty states across
the country.
In his ruling last year, the judge outlined a series of problems, ranging from
San Quentin's antiquated execution chamber to a lack of training for execution
team members and faulty safeguards during executions. This spring, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger responded by ordering prison officials to come up with new
procedures and training programs to meet Fogel's concerns so the state can
resume executions.
The governor also called for the construction of a new execution facility on
prison grounds.
Morales' lawyers maintain the state's new protocol remains inadequate to
ensure humane executions, prompting Fogel to schedule another round of
hearings. In the meantime, the state's execution machinery has ground to a
halt for the more than 650 inmates on death row.
Fogel made it clear this afternoon that he wants to finish the case,
particularly given that his ultimate ruling is sure to be appealed.
"This court is very interested in getting this proceeding concluded," he told
lawyers in court.
Rev. Mr. George W. Brooks J.D.
Director of Adult Spirituality
Infant Jesus of Prague
Flossmoor, IL 60422
