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Death penalty protesters demonstrate at San Quentin prison, celebrating at the delay of an execution in 2006. The state Department of Corrections today began seeking public comment on its revised protocols for carrying out the death penalty.
By the time the department closes comment on June 30 and conducts a public hearing that same day on the revised protocol, it should meet the directive of a state appellate court to abide by the California Administrative Procedures Act.
A federal judge in San Jose ruled in December 2006 that the state protocol then in use to administer a lethal three-drug cocktail violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The state attempted to revise its protocol, but in 2007, a Marin Superior Court judge barred its use because the state had not followed the Administrative Procedures Act. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco affirmed the lower court ruling.
The federal judge froze executions in California, and his order remains in effect. That judge will still examine the constitutionality of the revised protocol after the state court determines it has met the requirements it set out.
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