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California Sentences 28 New Prisoners to Death Row While Executing None in 2010
Michael Angelo MoralesWell, there have been NO executions in California for five years. But, there are some criminals that are being sent to Death Row anyway.California continued to buck a nationwide trend away from costly and litigious death sentences in 2010, adding 28 new prisoners to the country’s most populous death row, according to correction officials and a national database on capital punishment.
Los Angeles County alone condemned eight defendants to death this year, the same number as Texas, and Riverside County sent six men to await execution, officials said.
The state’s death chamber was idle for a fifth year, though, because of protracted legal challenges of lethal injection practices and a nationwide shortage of the key drug used in the three-injection procedure.
A federal judge who halted lethal injections in California over concerns that it was cruel and unusual punishment plans to tour the state’s new death chamber in February.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel on Wednesday told attorneys representing a death row inmate who filed a lawsuit and the state attorney general’s office that he wants to hold a hearing at San Quentin State Prison sometime in February. Fogel is determining whether the state’s new lethal injection procedure is constitutional.
Fogel halted executions in early 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve their lethal injection process. The judge was concerned that staff members were inadequately trained and the death chamber was too small and dark to properly carry out executions.
Fogel wants to view firsthand the improvements prison officials made to the death chamber since then. Fogel wants to hold the hearing and tour sometime between Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 and asked lawyers to propose a hearing date.
The attorney general’s office asked for Feb. 9 while attorneys for death row inmate Michael Morales, who filed the lawsuit that led to Fogel’s ruling, haven’t made any suggestions yet.
I don’t think Californians can look for justice and enforcement of the death penalty law anytime soon. For the past five years, Judge Fogel has used one legal excuse after another to stifle the law of California (even the U.S. Supreme Court weighed into the argument, allowing executions in other states via lethal injection).
Plus, both newly elected Governor Jerry Brown (who appointed anti-death penalty and later removed California Supreme Court Chief Justice, Rose Bird) and Attorney General Kamala Harris are personally opposed to the death penalty and despite what they say, will be in no hurry to execute Michael Angelo Morales or Albert Greenwood Brown. Look for more legal rangling after Judge Fogel visits the death chamber in February. And, then there is the Morales suit.
No justice yet for Terri Lynn Winchell.
Terri Lynn Winchell
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The Death Penalty Archive -
California Finds Sodium Thiopental to Execute Albert Greenwood Brown – But, So?
Well, at least the State of California has found sodium thiopental to execute Albert Greenwood Brown.
Good news for those who believe in the concept “lex talionis” is bad news for Albert Greenwood Brown.
California’s prisons have located an elusive drug needed to resume executions. That is the last thing that convicted killer and rapist Albert Greenwood Brown wanted to hear.
The San Quentin inmate has had his execution on hold since Sept. 29 when a national shortage of the drug sodium thiopental forced delays in lethal injection killings across the country.
The drug is the first of three drugs administered during capital punishment sentences in California. But the country’s only domestic supplier of the drug had production problems that search state prison systems to search globally for supplies.
California’s prison department ultimately ended up giving a British company $36,415 for 521 grams of the drug that expire in 2014. Brown’s execution has been rescheduled.
But, Brown will NOT be executed anytime soon due to the anti-death penalty Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel who started the charade of the three drug cocktail “cruel and unusual punishment” argument to prevent California executions years ago.
Here is the latest on the appeals:
A federal judge in San Jose refused a state request Friday for dismissal of part of a lawsuit challenging California’s lethal injection procedures for executions.
But U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said he intends to resolve the lawsuit by two death row inmates “as expeditiously as possible.” He scheduled a status conference on the case for Dec. 17.
Inmates Michael Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown, who both face death sentences for murders of teenage girls in the early 1980s, claim the state’s three-drug execution procedure carries a risk of causing unconstitutional severe pain.
The state contends that any problems were corrected in a revised lethal injection protocol completed earlier this year.
State attorneys had asked Fogel to dismiss two out of three claims in the lawsuit. The first claim is that the revised protocol is unconstitutional “on its face,” or under all circumstances. The second claim is a contention that there is a reasonable alternative to the current procedure.
The state did not seek early dismissal of a third claim that the procedure is unconstitutional when actually applied by corrections officials.
Fogel said in a 15-page ruling that lawyers for Morales and Brown had presented enough preliminary information to allow the two challenged claims to remain in the case along with the third claim. He wrote that the claims “cannot simply be dismissed as implausible.”The judge also said the inmates had presented an adequate minimum basis for arguing in later proceedings that a single-drug execution, using only the sedative sodium thiopental, might be a reasonable alternative.
Three drugs, one drug – what difference does it really make? Other states have been executing murderers for the over five years that California has been frakking around with drug cocktail combinations and drug availability.
I have to say the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has been diligent in pursuing the California Death Penalty Law. Read about how the California Department of Corrections secured their stash of sodium thiotental (sodium pentothal). The original ACLU document dump is here.
But, Albert Greenwood Brown will NOT be executed anytime soon – after almost 30 years of appeals. Anti-death penalty Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris were elected in November and they both will drag their feet on executing anyone.
As the Albert Greenwood Brown case languishes in the courts, the death penalty law will not be enforced in California. Moreover, I am waiting for the initiative to come before California voters to change the law using costs as the prime argument.
There will be NO justice for the victims of Albert Greenwood Brown and Michael Morales, et. al on Death Row.
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Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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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?
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California Calls Off the Scheduled Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown – FINALLY
Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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California Calls Off the Scheduled Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown – FINALLY
Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law?
After many days of legal maneuvers and machinations, the scheduled execution of Albert Greenwood Brown has been called off by the State of California.State officials called off the scheduled execution of a convicted murderer Wednesday, hours after the California Supreme Court intervened in the case and made it all but impossible to carry out the death sentence.
The attorney general’s office had begun the day by asking a federal appeals court to allow the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown Jr. to proceed but later asked the court to dismiss the request. Brown had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday.
“A new execution date will be sought in accordance with applicable law and in conformity with all court orders,” said Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
The high court said a separate challenge of the state’s protocol for lethal injection remains pending, and the state cannot proceed until that is resolved. That challenge was brought by other death row inmates in Marin County Superior Court.
And, since the appeal will not be decided by Friday when the sodium thiopental drug expires, California will not be able to execute Brown or any other inmate on Death row until sometime during the first quarter of 2011.
In the meantime, while the California Supreme Court was working its will, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Browm clemency.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied a request for clemency Wednesday for a convicted murderer and rapist at the center of a frenetic legal battle over whether California should resume executions after a nearly five-year gap.
Attorneys for Albert Greenwood Brown had asked the governor to reduce his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole, arguing that jurors in his 1982 murder trial never heard about the full extent of the mental impairment that affected his ability to control his impulses.
But Schwarzenegger noted that other courts had reviewed the same evidence and concluded it would not have affected the outcome of Brown’s trial. In addition, the governor cited the brutality of Brown’s crime and the “overwhelming” evidence pointing to his guilt.
Brown was convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl. Prosecutors accused him of making taunting phone calls to the victim’s mother after the girl vanished.
“The guilt and aggravating evidence is overwhelming, and the mitigation evidence is just the opposite,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his clemency denial. “Brown’s jury reasonably concluded that a penalty of death was appropriate in this case, and I have no reason to disagree.”
But, alas, Brown will NOT be executed tomorrow and all of his criminal cronies at San Quentin Death Row will have another Thanksgiving and Christmas season to enjoy while the state and federal courts consider numerous appeals and the California Department of Corrections attempts to restock its stockpile of sodium thiopental. Too bad the victims murdered by Brown and the other murderers will not receive the justice that is due them. Many of said victims have been waiting thirty years or more.
A travesty of justice.
Previous:
Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood BrownAlbert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law?
Not really a shocker. And, Albert Greenwood Brown will NOT be executed this week unless a federal appeals court overrules Judge Fogel.A federal judge blocked the execution of condemned murderer Albert Greenwood Brown this evening, saying he lacked time to assess changes in California’s lethal injection procedures because the state had set the execution date so abruptly.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose had denied a stay of execution to Brown on Friday. But a federal appeals court ordered him to reconsider Monday night and decide whether the new injection procedures eliminated the risk that a prisoner would suffer a prolonged and agonizing death.
Fogel, whose 2006 ruling halted executions in California because of that risk, hurriedly ordered and reviewed written arguments from both sides Tuesday. He then said Brown had raised at least a substantial question about whether the state’s changes, adopted in response to his ruling, had solved the problems.
“The urgency of the present situation was created not by Brown, but by (the state’s) decision to seek an execution date only 30 days after the new regulations became final,” surprising both him and the inmate’s lawyers, Fogel said.
Since we know that Judge Fogel’s decisions are a charade (he is obviously obstructive to the death penalty) this is really no surprise at all. No matter what the State of California will do or how much money they will spend on correcting execution protocols, Judge Fogel will find fault. And, Jerry Brown who is the Attorney General and against the death penalty’s office is in charge of appealing Fogel’s decision to allow an execution. It appears his office is merely going through the motions. Any appeal will not be vigorously pursued.
Californians will have to wait until a federal appeals court finally orders the State of California to comply with the law.
This will not occur anytime soon.
What a travesty of justice.
Albert Greenwood Browns Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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Updated: U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Orders a New Hearing for Albert Greenwood Brown – U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel Calls for Briefs
*****Updated*****It keeps getting better and better folks. The legal process to execute someone in California is becoming more of a joke each day.Sadly to say for the victims of these crimes.A federal judge Tuesday morning asked the attorney general’s office and lawyers for convicted murderer Albert Greenwood Brown Jr. to file paperwork within six hours explaining whether the state should be allowed to execute Brown on Thursday.
The request came after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel to reconsider an earlier order in which he rejected Brown’s request to halt the execution.
Fogel asked the attorneys to weigh in on the state’s new procedures for carrying out lethal injections, including how similar and different they are from the older rules that Fogel previously ruled were flawed. Lawyers have until early Thursday afternoon to file their arguments.
However, time is of the essence since the expiration date for the drug sodium thiopental which the state uses for the lethal injections is Friday. And, after this date no more of this drug will be available until sometime in the first quarter of 2011.
Read on…..
Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law?
Late Monday a federal appeals court has apparently stayed the planned execution of Albert Greenwood Brown who is scheduled to die at 9 PM Thursday.A federal appeals court in San Francisco late Monday ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed for a convicted murderer and rapist to be executed this week at San Quentin State Prison.
Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 killing of a 15-year-old Riverside girl.
But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel erred by offering Brown a choice of a one-drug lethal injection or a three-drug cocktail.
“The district court’s decision to provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option is not consistent with California state law and procedures. California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option,” the ruling said.
The appeals court ordered the judge to schedule a new hearing.
The court’s order came hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in Brown’s execution, citing a procedural complication in the state’s attempt to carry out its first death sentence in nearly five years.
The governor’s reprieve coincided with an announcement by the attorney general’s office that further lethal-injection sentences in California would have to wait until at least next year due to a nationwide shortage of the key drug used to render condemned prisoners unconscious.
And, now there is another impediment to California executions – the availability of the drug, sodium thiopental. How cute and convenient.
Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General who is personally opposed to the death penalty and who appointed the later recalled Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court who let a number of infamous criminals live when her court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional decades ago is now entrusted with enforcing the death penalty law.
Good luck with the California death penalty law being enforced with Jerry Brown as Attorney General. If Brown is elected governor in November, look for more anti-death penalty Supreme Court Justices to be appointed, as well.
Also, note the company who makes sodium thiopental is having some difficulty with its product being used for legal executions.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “has been unable to secure sodium thiopental to perform any executions after Sept. 30,” said attorney general spokeswoman Christine Gasparac. “This office will recommend that future executions be scheduled when [the corrections department] expects the drug to be available.”
The drug manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., blamed the shortage on a third-party supplier’s failure to provide the crucial pharmaceutical ingredient for its pentothal product. The company said it expected to have more available in the first quarter of 2011. But a spokesman also reiterated the company’s objections to their product being used in executions.
“Hospira manufactures this product because it improves or saves lives, and the company markets it solely for use as indicated on the product labeling. The drug is not indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure,” said spokesman Daniel Rosenberg, adding that the company informed corrections departments of its position earlier this year.
Death penalty opponents cannot change California law so they subvert the legal process to get their way.
What a travesty of justice.
There will not be any executions in California now until at least the first quarter of next year – if then.
Previous:
Albert Greenwood Browns Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerCalifornia Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Orders a New Hearing for Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law?
Late Monday a federal appeals court has apparently stayed the planned execution of Albert Greenwood Brown who is scheduled to die at 9 PM Thursday.A federal appeals court in San Francisco late Monday ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed for a convicted murderer and rapist to be executed this week at San Quentin State Prison.
Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 killing of a 15-year-old Riverside girl.
But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel erred by offering Brown a choice of a one-drug lethal injection or a three-drug cocktail.
“The district court’s decision to provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option is not consistent with California state law and procedures. California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option,” the ruling said.
The appeals court ordered the judge to schedule a new hearing.
The court’s order came hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in Brown’s execution, citing a procedural complication in the state’s attempt to carry out its first death sentence in nearly five years.
The governor’s reprieve coincided with an announcement by the attorney general’s office that further lethal-injection sentences in California would have to wait until at least next year due to a nationwide shortage of the key drug used to render condemned prisoners unconscious.
And, now there is another impediment to California executions – the availability of the drug, sodium thiopental. How cute and convenient.
Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General who is personally opposed to the death penalty and who appointed the later recalled Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court who let a number of infamous criminals live when her court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional decades ago is now entrusted with enforcing the death penalty law.
Good luck with the California death penalty law being enforced with Jerry Brown as Attorney General. If Brown is elected governor in November, look for more anti-death penalty Supreme Court Justices to be appointed, as well.
Also, note the company who makes sodium thiopental is having some difficulty with its product being used for legal executions.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “has been unable to secure sodium thiopental to perform any executions after Sept. 30,” said attorney general spokeswoman Christine Gasparac. “This office will recommend that future executions be scheduled when [the corrections department] expects the drug to be available.”
The drug manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., blamed the shortage on a third-party supplier’s failure to provide the crucial pharmaceutical ingredient for its pentothal product. The company said it expected to have more available in the first quarter of 2011. But a spokesman also reiterated the company’s objections to their product being used in executions.
“Hospira manufactures this product because it improves or saves lives, and the company markets it solely for use as indicated on the product labeling. The drug is not indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure,” said spokesman Daniel Rosenberg, adding that the company informed corrections departments of its position earlier this year.
Death penalty opponents cannot change California law so they subvert the legal process to get their way.
What a travesty of justice.
There will not be any executions in California now until at least the first quarter of next year – if then.
Previous:
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerCalifornia Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid -
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
From yesterday evening’s Fresno television station KFSNCalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the stay for Albert Greenwood Brown this afternoon and delayed the first California execution in five years.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an order Monday delaying the execution of a convicted rapist and murderer by one day, postponing what would be the first death sentence carried out in California in nearly five years.
Schwarzenegger cited procedural reasons for the temporary reprieve, saying that an appeals court decision allowing the execution to be carried out would not take effect until Thursday, a day after the execution was previously scheduled.
The reprieve ends at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
The execution has now been scheduled for 9 PM Thursday night.
The governor allowed the stay so that Brown could exhaust his final appeals which would not be decided until Thursday.
Brown’s attorneys have filed simulataneous appeals to the federal courts and state courts, seeking to block his execution on the grounds that the state improperly adopted its new lethal injection procedures. They allege that execution under the new regulations would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
The 45-hour reprieve pushes the execution to within hours of the expiration date on the state’s supply of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in the lethal injection process.
The attorney general’s office said Monday that it would recommend not scheduling any more executions after Sept. 30 until the state could secure a fresh supply of the drug, an anesthetic that renders the condemned inmate unconscious before lethal drugs are injected.
The delay was imposed by Schwarzenegger just hours after Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams refused to block Brown’s execution after he argued in a lawsuit that California’s new death penalty regulations were improperly adopted.
“Mr. Brown cannot prove that he will suffer pain if he is executed under the current regulations,” Adams said.
A federal judge ruled similarly on Friday after Brown contended California’s lethal injection process put him at risk of suffering cruel and unusual punishment.
I mean he has had ONLY, what, almost thirty years!
Again, I would not hold my breath for this or any California execution soon.
What a travesty of justice.
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U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel Clears Path for California Executions to Resume – But Will They?
The newly renovated San Quentin Prison Death Chamber
AP PhotoWell, for now – or should I say until Monday afternoon, California executions as per state and federal law can proceed.A federal judge in San Jose gave the go-ahead today for next week’s scheduled execution of a convicted murderer from Riverside County, which would be the state’s first execution in nearly five years.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who blocked lethal injections at San Quentin State Prison in February 2006 because of haphazard procedures, untrained staff and the potential of inflicting excruciating pain, said revised state regulations and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling had removed constitutional obstacles to renewed executions.
Fogel acknowledged that he has not yet reviewed the state’s amended procedures to determine whether they still pose a risk of violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
But he said the condemned inmate, Albert Greenwood Brown, could avert that risk by choosing to be executed with a single drug – a heavy dose of the sedative sodium pentothal – rather than the three-drug combination California has used in past executions.
The potential for excruciating pain comes from the second and third drugs, paralytic and heart-stopping chemicals, if the sedative fails to work properly. Fogel noted that Ohio and Washington state have used one-drug executions on nine prisoners in the last year without reported difficulties.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures, using the same chemicals as California and most other states, met constitutional standards. The court said a prisoner would have to present a “demonstrated risk of severe pain” to challenge an execution with those drugs.
Brown is scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Fogel said he would issue a stay if Brown chose a one-drug execution and the state refused to use that method. He gave Brown until 6 p.m. Saturday to make that choice.
State lawyers spelled out procedures for a possible one-drug execution in a court filing earlier his week but said they were not conceding that the procedure would comply with state law.
So, the people of California spend almost a $ 1 million (more than $800,000) for a new death chamber and countless employee hours for new procedures and retraining so the inmate has a choice of a one drug cocktail or the old standard method?
WTF?
Doesn’t anyone see this is a charade by Judge Fogel?
Judge Fogel obviously does NOT support the death penalty as a matter of personal conscience or whatever and has used every opportunity to throw up roadblocks. Interesting, that the Judge is so disinterested that he has not even toured the new facility or read the training manual. I would consider this judicial misfeasance if not out right neglect.
Anyway, Albert Greenwood Brown has until tomorrow night to decide if he wants a one drug execution or the three drug execution. If he chooses one drug and the State of California balks (says they are not ready to comply) then a stay is immediately granted. However, Judge Fogel’s order states that if Brown chooses one drug then he would have to waive his rights under state law which is the subject of a Marin County lawsuit which is pending.
Then, on Monday, a Marin County State of California judge will be asked to halt the execution while a lawsuit challenging the new lethal injection regulations is pending. Of course. Judge Fogel’s ruling today can be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
I still would not hold my breath that there will be any California executions next week or anytime soon.
Previous:
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
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California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law
A California State Appeals Court has paved the way for a resumption of the death penalty in California.A state appeals court Monday removed one of the few remaining impediments to the resumption of executions in California, helping clear the way for the lethal injection of an inmate later this month.
“We are acting with the assumption that without any stay in place … that the execution will go forward,” said Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Dane Gillette.
The state is scheduled to execute Albert Greenwood Brown, convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1980, on Sept. 29. But a federal judge could still delay executions, and another inmate has challenged a new lethal injection protocol.
The state has not executed anyone in nearly five years.
Here is why Albert Greenwood Brown is on death row.
A Sept. 29 execution date was set today for a man who raped and murdered a Riverside teenager nearly 30 years ago.
Albert Greenwood Brown’s death warrant was signed by Riverside Superior Court Judge Roger A. Luebs. His execution will take place at San Quentin State Prison.
“Justice has been delayed for 30 years since Susan Jordan was murdered,” Chief Assistant District Attorney William Mitchell said. “It’s time we moved forward with this.”
Brown’s attorney’s filed a request for an emergency stay, but it was denied Friday by the California Supreme Court, clearing the way for Luebs to set an execution date.
Brown grabbed 15-year-old Susan Jordan in October 1980, as she walked along Victoria Avenue on her way to Arlington High School in Riverside, and raped and murdered the teenager.
Brown then called the girl’s parents and told them they would never see their daughter alive again and could find her in a particular orange grove.
Brown had been paroled from state prison just four months earlier for the 1977 rape of a 14-year-old girl.
He was convicted of the older girl’s rape and murder in 1982 and sentenced to death.
Brown has been on death row for over 30 years and all of his appeals have been exhausted. He goes on September 29th – after 30 years of waiting.
But, alas there are the federal courts where lethal injection procedures are under view for possible Eight amendment violations. anyone want to bet whether this miscreant is executed on the 29th?
In the meantime, Michael Morales and four other inmates on death row may soon be executed.
Deputy Attorney General Michael Quinn said Tuesday officials will soon seek to schedule the executions of five other inmates, including Michael Morales of Stockton. Morales was within hours of receiving a lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl when U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel in 2006 halted his execution. Fogel ordered prison officials to revamp the state’s lethal injection procedures in response to Morales’ legal challenge alleging cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, officials have constructed a new death chamber at San Quentin Prison and rewrote the execution procedures in 2007. Morales and another death row inmate, Mitchell Sims of Los Angeles, filed a separate lawsuit in Marin County in 2007 alleging the new procedures should be subjected to public comment and the state’s time-consuming regulatory adopting process. A judge agreed and barred executions until the state properly adopted the new lethal injection regulations.
On Sunday, prison officials said those new regulations took effect.
Well, let’s see what Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel has to say tomorrow. I wouldn’t hold my breath for any executuions in California – anytime soon.
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