Lawsuit calls for quicker executions in Calif.
By Don Thompson, AP
SACRAMENTO — A victims’ rights organization sued California state officials on Thursday as it seeks to speed up executions that have been on hold since 2006.
Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation filed a petition in Sacramento County Superior Court asking a judge to order state corrections officials to adopt procedures for a single-drug, barbiturate-only method of execution.
State policy calls for using a series of three drugs to put condemned inmates to death. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is drafting new lethal injection regulations after Gov. Jerry Brown said in April 2012 the state would switch to a single-drug injection.
However, department spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said a nationwide shortage of execution drugs is slowing progress. She declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The foundation says the department is taking too long to adopt the new regulations. No executions can occur until the new rules are adopted.
It is asking the judge to order the state to adopt temporary regulations within 30 days and take immediate steps to adopt permanent regulations.
The foundation sought the court order on behalf of Kermit Alexander, whose mother, sister and two nephews were murdered in 1984, and Bradley Winchell, whose sister was raped and murdered in 1983, contending that as relatives of the victims they are affected by the continued delays.
Alexander and Winchell said in nearly identical letters to Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard in September that the murders of their relatives took place 30 years ago, yet there is “no end in sight” for the convicted killers solely because of the department’s failure to adopt the new regulations.
Executions in California have also been halted by a series of legal challenges over the last eight years, most recently when a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in July that carrying out the death penalty takes so long that it amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Attorney General Kamala Harris is appealing that ruling.
The judge noted that more than 900 people have been sentenced to death in California since the current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago. But only 13 have been executed, leaving most condemned inmates to die of natural causes before their executions are carried out.
Make sure the crime was done by the person convicted, and then kill em quick. Include white collar crimes and child molesting.
Too costly? How about a 25 cent bullet?! Swift and final!!
900 minus the 35 executed leaves 865 convicts. Using the .25 bullet on the rest of them, I see a total cost for the executions to be….. $216.25. Sounds like good economics. And think of all the freed up cells to put more killers into…..and then rotate them out.
Wow. And you think conservatives are blood thirsty?
Last time I checked, there was no death penalty for white collar crime. Or child molestation, for that matter.
I have written since I’ve been posting here that my views span the entire political spectrum, though I tend towards the far left I do not let myself be defined by it or bound by it, and when it comes to crime I tend towards the right. It makes no sense to incarcerate a person for life. It also makes no sense to take a petit criminal and sentence him to ‘Crime University’ either. White collar crimes, crimes of violence and child molestation, in my opinion, should be capital crimes.
Dog, I’m not blood thirsty just “justice” thirsty and not letting them linger and grow old on Death row. I don’t agree with White Collar crimes or molesters being sentenced to death….as long as molesters are off the streets. That’s Hmmm’s opinion and we are all entitled to them.
BTW Dog, I haven’t said I think conservatives are bloodthirsty(though I would probably agree with that). I HAVE said that I think they are petty, mean, hypocritical, shallow, greedy, unable to connect the dots regarding causality, motivated by fear and willingly misinformed-and they tend to be proud of it.
White collar crimes should be capital crimes? Hmm. We’ve had quite a few people up here, mostly women, who have been convicted of embezzling from their employers. They’ve gotten off with slaps on the wrist for the most part, which I think is a shame. But the death penalty? Naaah.
Hmmm: I agree that molesters should be locked up for LIFE. White collar….I guess it would depend. Violent crimes, should be locked up for life or put to death. I respect your opinions.
Ok-SOME white collar criminals…for example the CEO of Enron, or the people at Duke Energy whose intentionally negligent coal ash spills have destroyed communities and fresh water supplies for generations to come in order to enrich themselves. People who intentionally exploit loopholes in laws to destroy the health and livelihoods of others. Sociopaths. War Criminals.
Hmmm: I agree. Those kinds of crooks need to be locked up and all their financial gains donated to charities.
Yes severe penalties not quite the death penalty should be considered for all involved in the theft of billions for companies involved in the Bummer gang like Solyndra.
There is a reason that you don’t have the death penalty for things like child molestation and rape is that if they are capital crimes, there is no reason not to kill your victim. If you do, you have a better chance of getting away with it. It is in the interest of the victim. Also the Death Penalty does not deter crimes (never has) and the states with the Death Penalty have higher murder rates across the board. So why would we make faster a process that doesn’t work and is detrimental. I know it makes some of you feel better, but I would rather look at solutions that actually work.
lisa there are solutions to these type of crimes that actually work? if you could enlighten us what these solutions are that would be wonderful.
I’m not sure whether the death penalty deters crime or not. I’ve heard over and over again that it doesn’t, but I haven’t heard any proof either way.
Personally, I don’t believe in the death penalty for any crime, even though there are crimes that I would personally like to strangle the perp for. . . but as I believe abortion is wrong, I believe execution is also wrong. I don’t believe one person has the right to take the life of another, unless it’s absolutely a matter of self defense.
Reloman:
We are in some dubious company as all democratic and advanced societies have either abolished the death penalty completely or for all normal crimes. We find ourselves with China, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html
I think it is fair to say the rest of the world has found “solutions” that work since virtual all industrialized countries incarcerate far fewer citizens and execute no one, and generally have less crime.
Rick
They don’t have less crime. They just have less reporting of crime. There are no “solutions”. Evil exists in the world.
but Rick you still havent told us what the solution is? should we just stop arresting people and let the people out of prison? is that the solution? we spend the most on education and health care yet we arent even close to being the top in those categories. So its obvious that throwing money at the problem is NOT the solution.
Rick, you are now expected to be a leading criminal justice sociologist. I expect these people will not go out and find which societies/countries have better criminal justice systems on their own. I fully expect that some very in-depth conversations will come out of this website, as it has in the past with issues such as climate change, immigration, ebola, and the global socialist conspiracy that is currently infiltrating the small town of Meyers.
May Angry Sky Man have mercy on your soul.
Fish