Post by Peteetongman on May 31, 2013 17:18:17 GMT -5
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California appeals court upheld a judge's ruling on Thursday prohibiting the state from executing condemned inmates until it adopts a new lethal-injection protocol, in the latest judicial move against capital punishment in the state.
California has 736 inmates on death row but has not executed anyone in seven years.
A federal judge imposed a moratorium on executions there in 2006, ruling that the most populous U.S. state's use of a lethal three-drug cocktail amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, corrections officials have tried to fix deficiencies in the injection procedure, but a state trial court last year imposed its own separate moratorium on executions after deeming the process "a substantial failure."
Thursday's California 1st Appellate District ruling came in a challenge by condemned murderer Mitchell Sims, who sued in 2010 arguing that one of three drugs to be used for executions was unnecessary and would cause excruciating pain.
Sims' attorneys also alleged the state failed to follow procedures in formulating its latest combination of drugs to be used in the lethal cocktail.
<eye roll>
news.yahoo.com/california-appeals-court-upholds-moratorium-executions-060213750.html
California has 736 inmates on death row but has not executed anyone in seven years.
A federal judge imposed a moratorium on executions there in 2006, ruling that the most populous U.S. state's use of a lethal three-drug cocktail amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, corrections officials have tried to fix deficiencies in the injection procedure, but a state trial court last year imposed its own separate moratorium on executions after deeming the process "a substantial failure."
Thursday's California 1st Appellate District ruling came in a challenge by condemned murderer Mitchell Sims, who sued in 2010 arguing that one of three drugs to be used for executions was unnecessary and would cause excruciating pain.
Sims' attorneys also alleged the state failed to follow procedures in formulating its latest combination of drugs to be used in the lethal cocktail.
<eye roll>
news.yahoo.com/california-appeals-court-upholds-moratorium-executions-060213750.html
