California lethal injection protocol assailed

As detailed in this Los Angeles Times article, lawyers challenging California’s lethal injection protocols pulled no punches when filing their final briefs in the on-going federal district court litigation:

California’s procedures for executing prisoners by lethal injection fall short of standards set by the veterinary profession for animal euthanasia and were formulated with less care than methods in China, the world leader in capital punishment, according to a brief filed Tuesday in San Jose federal court by attorneys for a death row inmate. In addition, the brief asserts that the execution team at San Quentin State Prison is “unlicensed, untrained, unprofessional and incompetent” to carry out its duties….

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “conducts its executions in an outdated, cramped gas chamber with an undersized and dark anteroom,” from which prison staff are supposed to assure proper administration of a three-drug protocol, the brief says.  The brief also says the state uses chemicals “mixed by untrained and unsupervised prison staff, while ensuring that there is no meaningful oversight or review.”

Earlier this month, the California attorney general’s office issued a ringing defense of the state’s procedures, maintaining in its brief that “there is no evidence that any prior execution resulted in the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.” But the 274-page brief filed by Morales’ attorneys finds fault with virtually every aspect of California’s administration of capital punishment, frequently citing statements by state personnel during the proceedings.