Judge postpones action on challenge to California's execution method
By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Article Launched: 11/06/2007 03:09:15 PM PST


A federal judge in San Jose today put the ongoing legal challenge to California's lethal injection method on hold until next year, a move expected because of recent developments in other courts.
In a brief order, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel scrapped a planned Nov. 19 trip to San Quentin to view the state's new execution chamber, as well as two days of hearings previously scheduled for December. Fogel cited last week's ruling by a Marin County judge, who invalidated California's overhauled lethal injection procedures because state officials violated the law by adopting them without public hearings or input.
Fogel had been preparing to review the new execution procedures, which were put in place last spring by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration. The governor and prison officials devised the new procedures to address Fogel's concerns that California's lethal injection method was so flawed it could expose a death row inmate to cruel and unusual punishment.
The Marin judge's ruling, which the state plans to appeal, is expected to delay the state's effort to overhaul its execution system. In addition, there is a de facto freeze on executions nationwide as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to review the lethal injection issue in a Kentucky case, which will not be decided until next spring or summer.
Executions already have been on hold in California for nearly two years as a result of the lethal injection challenge.
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