California agrees to proposed execution method

[Zight]

Source: San Jose Mercury

California's death penalty system, dormant for nine years, might soon move slowly toward resuming executions.

As part of a court settlement reached on Tuesday, the state's corrections department agreed to unveil a new execution method by the fall that will be tied to the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected sometime this month in a challenge to Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol.

While California is still far from executing one of the 750 condemned killers on death row, the development marks movement on the issue for the first time in years. There are at least 17 inmates on death row who have exhausted their legal appeals and would be eligible for execution dates.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28236441/california-death-penalty-state-agrees-propose-execution-method

[SoapBox]

1. Whaaaat?

I thought we had put a total stop to executions.

Who's behind this push?

What a surprise.

Added...article says Brown and Harris have been "dragging their feet". Good!

We can easily afford to keep the 750 on death row locked up for life...if, we would stop jailing little landscapers and minor drug offenses...we waste so much on stupid charges.

[Zight]

6. The man whose mom, sister and nephews were murdered

And Another family. they are behind the push.

[Eric J in MN]

2. A federal judge ruled against CA's death penalty on other grounds.

...a federal judge ruled Wednesday that decades-long delays and uncertainty about whether condemned inmates will ever be executed violate the constitution's ban on cruel or unusual punishment..

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, was unprecedented and likely to further inflame the debate over the state's death penalty. Several prominent judges have excoriated California's death penalty for its dysfunction, but Carney was the first to rule the delays amounted to a constitutional violation and left the system without any legitimate purpose.

...Carney said the delays had created a "system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed."

http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-death-penalty-20140717-story.html#page=1

[Zight]

7. The article says the ruling was unprecedented

Maybe the State thought that it would be unlikely to survive appeal.

[Eric J in MN]

9. Yes, it will probably be reversed, but until it is...

...executions are illegal in California.

[Zight]

10. Actually, Reuters says the 2014 ruling applied to one inmate only

June 2, 2015

"Last year, another federal judge, in a ruling that applied to only one inmate plaintiff, found California's system for imposing and carrying out the death penalty was so long and drawn-out it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment."

Can you clarify what's going on?

[Eric J in MN]

11. I guess the judge didn't issue an injunction

...against executing other prisoners, but the implication of his ruling is that any prisoner who appeals to him would have their execution stopped.

[enlightenment]

3. Sad this is even being considered.

A step backward for California.

[blackspade]

4. How about we just skip executions altogether?

That would make the most sense.

[SoapBox]

5. The blood lust and desire for revenge,

runs deep, apparently even in California.

I would to know what the majority (and I would need to see a substantial majority polled) of Californians think versus how many are pushing for the killings.

[Zight]

8. What do you mean you want a substantial majority to be polled?

How many people is that?

[d_legendary1]

12. I thought an eye for an eye made everyone blind!

I would be happy to know that someone who killed a relative would be locked up for good instead of taking the easy way out through execution. Blood lust does not become Cali.

[Bossy Monkey]

13. The Death by Adam Sandler Movies method will never hold up to Supreme Court scrutiny. n/t