California’s Method of Execution To Be Changed
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SAN FRANCISCO — Governor Schwarzenegger of California said his administration will change the state’s method of lethal injection to guarantee the execution procedure doesn’t inflict pain or discomfort on the condemned.
Officials will use a new screening process, train members of execution teams, standardize record keeping, and find death penalty experts to advise California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Mr. Schwarzenegger said yesterday in a statement.
The use of lethal injection in California and Florida was ordered halted last week because of questions about the length of such executions, and the possibility of causing pain and discomfort before death. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, Calif., ruled that the method is unconstitutional because it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
“My administration will take immediate action to resolve court concerns which have cast legal doubt on California’s procedure for carrying out the death penalty,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said in the statement.
The federal government, the American military, and 38 states allow capital punishment, and all of those except Nebraska use lethal injection as the primary method of killing inmates sentenced to death, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
