Bad News for Albert Greenwood Brown and Other California Death Row Inmates?

Well, maybe. But, I would not hold my breath for the resumption of California executions anytime soon.

California reportedly has enough of a scarce lethal injection drug to go ahead with up to four executions.

The U.S. maker of sodium thiopental has said the company will not make any more batches until next year, and opposes its use for capital punishment. But somehow California procured some. Seven of the 700-plus death row inmates have exhausted all of their appeals and are eligible to be executed.

Somewhere in San Quentin, the state has locked up a new supply of scarce sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used to execute death row inmates.

All the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would say is the department obtained it legally and within the United States.

Even Governor Schwarzenegger isn’t saying.

“Have I seen it? The drug? No. But apparently we have it in the state,” said Schwarzenegger.

In court filings, the state says it has obtained 12 grams with an expiration date of 2014, enough to execute four inmates. The expiration date was an issue when convicted rapist and murderer Albert Greenwood Brown was set to be executed September 30, but wasn’t.

Because the last stock of sodium thiopental the state had expired that day, a judge called off the execution, citing the drug’s shelf life as one of the reasons.

Now death penalty advocates are calling on executions to resume. They say it doesn’t matter where the drug came from.

With Jerry Brown as the new California Governor, I doubt he will push for any speedy application of the death penalty (since he is personally opposed to it and remember he appointed Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court). However, Los Angeles County District Attorney, Steve Cooley is currently ahead in the recent race for California Attorney General and unlike his opponent, San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris, he supports the death penalty.

Should Steve Cooley win election, the foot dragging from the State of California should cease unless Governor Jerry Brown elects to pardon or grant clemency to these inmates – some who have been waiting for decades to be executed.

But, then again, the courts both federal and state will be used to delay the process.

Come on, why does it matter where the sodium thiopental comes from?

How about some justice for these criminal’s victims?

Previous:

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