Work Stopped On Death House

When it comes to state sanctioned death in California,
the right hand must let the left hand know whats
going on. At least thats the way the govenor wants
it. But with the state already dealing with setbacks
in its death penalty program should construction on
the death chamber have even started without the
blessings of the legislature? Weigh-in on this continuing
controversey.




Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday halted construction of a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, the latest setback for California's beleaguered capital punishment program.James E. Tilton, who heads the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told reporters in a conference call, "The governor has asked me to stop the project." The construction had raised alarm among legislators, who protested that they should have been consulted before the work began. Tilton said the governor "is very concerned about good communications with the Legislature. We should have done a better job of it.

"The halt will push the project back until at least July, further delaying executions, which have been at a standstill since February 2006, when a federal judge halted the execution of Michael Morales."This is a first-class fiasco," said John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.California has 660 inmates on death row, making it the largest in the U.S.

But faced with an active lobby against the death penalty and enhanced judicial scrutiny, the state has performed only 13 executions since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. In the latest complication, Morales, who was condemned to death for the 1981 murder of a Lodi teenager, filed a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose ruled in December that the state's procedures violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.California's protocol, like that of three dozen other states, calls for a three-drug cocktail.

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 painful cardiac arrest — are administered. The judge ruled that the way the state administered the drugs subjected death row inmates to a risk of excruciating pain. Legal challenges to lethal injection have halted executions in several other states.

Among numerous criticisms, the judge said the existing execution room — originally the gas chamber — was too dimly lighted, crowded and poorly designed to allow the execution team to effectively monitor whether inmates received enough barbiturate to deaden the pain. He also said the state failed to provide meaningful training, supervision and oversight of the execution team, allowed the improper preparation and mixing of drugs and had not reliably documented amounts of sodium thiopental taken from the prison pharmacy.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/