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California lethal injection plan spurs capital punishment fight
Source: Reuters
US | Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:22pm EST
California lethal injection plan spurs capital punishment fight
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. | BY SHARON BERNSTEIN
Advocates and opponents of capital punishment sparred on Friday over California's proposed new lethal injection protocol, highlighting deep divisions in a state that houses a quarter of U.S. death row inmates but has not executed anyone in a decade.
The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most populous U.S. state drew fire from religious activists, who called capital punishment grisly and anti-democratic at a hearing in Sacramento. Law-and-order advocates urged its adoption.
"As of next month, the state will have been remiss in its duties for a decade," said Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys. "The family members of the victims are dying before the murderers."
The informational hearing was part of the state's process for adopting a new protocol for lethal injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put condemned inmates to death. It would replace a three-drug cocktail that a California court declared unconstitutional 10 years ago because it could possibly cause pain.
Under a court settlement, the state must develop a new procedure for executions. At the same time, Californians have grown more divided over capital punishment, with nearly half the electorate and many top officials now opposing the death penalty.
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California lethal injection plan spurs capital punishment fight
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. | BY SHARON BERNSTEIN
Advocates and opponents of capital punishment sparred on Friday over California's proposed new lethal injection protocol, highlighting deep divisions in a state that houses a quarter of U.S. death row inmates but has not executed anyone in a decade.
The plan to use barbiturates to execute inmates sentenced to die in the most populous U.S. state drew fire from religious activists, who called capital punishment grisly and anti-democratic at a hearing in Sacramento. Law-and-order advocates urged its adoption.
"As of next month, the state will have been remiss in its duties for a decade," said Michele Hanisee, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys. "The family members of the victims are dying before the murderers."
The informational hearing was part of the state's process for adopting a new protocol for lethal injection that would use one drug, a barbiturate, to put condemned inmates to death. It would replace a three-drug cocktail that a California court declared unconstitutional 10 years ago because it could possibly cause pain.
Under a court settlement, the state must develop a new procedure for executions. At the same time, Californians have grown more divided over capital punishment, with nearly half the electorate and many top officials now opposing the death penalty.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-death-penalty-idUSKCN0V02P0
