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Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
The Death Chamber at San Quentin Prison
Sacramento Bee: New death chamber under construction
Legislative officials were surprised to learn this week that the state is building a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison as part of a response to a federal judge’s ruling that California’s lethal injection methods are unconstitutional, The Bee has learned.
Staff members with the California Legislative Analyst’s Office were made aware of the project during a visit to the prison on Tuesday, according to Dan Carson, director of the office’s criminal justice section.
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not tell legislators the project had begun. LAO staffers were “surprised” to learn the construction had started, Carson said, adding the project is “very far along.”
Carson said paperwork indicates the price tag on the project is $399,000. Projects costing less than $400,000 can be paid for out of discretionary funds; legislators do not need to be notified of such projects.
“We are not making an assertion at this point that there was any violation of state rules,” Carson said.
In December, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled San Quentin’s 69-year-old chamber was cramped and had inadequate lighting. Construction on a new chamber began last month and is expected to be completed in May, according to Lt. Eric Messick, a spokesman for the prison.
Fogel’s ruling came after a lawsuit brought on behalf of convicted killer Michael Angelo Morales, who sued the state in response to questions of whether inmates were awake during previous executions. Fogel eventually found seven cases in which inmates may not have been unconscious when they were injected with the drug that was to kill them.
Remember his victim, Terri Lynn Winchell?
Remember the MURDER? LOVE TRIANGLE GONE VICIOUS
Remember the NO JUSTICE INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT OF EXECUTION?
In addition to the space concerns, Fogel determined four other problems with the state’s execution process: inconsistent and unreliable screening of execution team members; a lack of meaningful training and oversight of the execution team; inconsistent and unreliable record keeping; and improper mixing, preparation and administration of sodium thiopental, a barbiturate sedative.
A spokeswoman for the corrections department would not comment on the new chamber. Under a judge’s ruling, the state does not have to discuss its progress until May 15.
Kudos to the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to address the court’s concerns and provide a better, humane death chamber for Michael Angelo Morales.
The $400 K dollars is money well spent for justice.
Stay tuned……
Previous: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
Technorati Tags: MichaelAngeloMorales,, ArnoldSchwarzenegger,, California,, KennethStarr,, TerriLynnWinchell,, LethalInjection
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Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes Revised 5-Point Lethal Injection Protocol
Sacramento Bee: State seeks new plan for lethal injections
Responding to judge, governor wants improved training for executions.
Addressing concerns of a federal judge, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out a plan Monday to bring California’s lethal injection process in line with constitutional standards guarding against cruel and unusual punishment.
Schwarzenegger’s proposed five-point lethal injection protocol came in response to Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose that the state hadn’t been properly anesthetizing condemned inmates who were being put to death.
The Republican governor’s new review plan calls for better screening and training of “execution team” members and requiring them to better familiarize themselves with the death drugs they administer.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel’s ruling is here.
Remember his victim, Terri Lynn Winchell?
Remember the MURDER? LOVE TRIANGLE GONE VICIOUS
Remember the NO JUSTICE INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT OF EXECUTION?
“I respect Judge Fogel’s decision,” Schwarzenegger said in Los Angeles on Monday. “(He) … has made it very clear we should make the system, we should make the procedure constitutional. So I instructed my office and my team to do that, to work hard on it. We had meetings on that issue and we are going to comply with the judge.”
In a prepared statement, the governor said his administration will “take immediate action to resolve court concerns which have cast legal doubt on California’s procedure for carrying out the death penalty.”
Good Call Governator.
Now, let’s get some justice for Terri Lynn Winchell.
However, stay tuned for the appeals of the revised protocol as soon as it is completed.
Previous:
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
Technorati Tags: MichaelAngeloMorales,, ArnoldSchwarzenegger,, California,, KennethStarr,, TerriLynnWinchell,, LethalInjection
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Michael Morales Watch: Judge Jeremy Fogel Rules – California Method of Lethal Injection Violates a Constitutional Ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment
AP: Federal judge declares Calif. executions unconstitutional
A federal judge who imposed a moratorium on state executions ruled Friday that the current method of lethal injection violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
California’s “implementation of lethal injection is broken, but it can be fixed,” U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said.
Fogel said the case presented the narrow question of whether a three-drug cocktail administered by San Quentin State Prison officials is so painful that it “offends” the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Fogel said he was compelled “to answer that question in the affirmative.”
The decision is the latest in a nationwide challenge to lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment and came just after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in that state after a botched execution this week.
Lethal injection is the preferred execution method in 37 states.
Last month, a federal judge declared Missouri’s injection method, which is similar to California’s, unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions — by hanging, firing squad, electric chair and gas chamber — despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.
Remember his victim, Terri Lynn Winchell?
Remember the MURDER? LOVE TRIANGLE GONE VICIOUS
Remember the NO JUSTICE INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT OF EXECUTION?
California has been under a capital punishment moratorium since February, when Fogel called off the execution of rapist and murderer Michael Morales amid concerns inmates might suffer excruciating deaths.
Fogel found substantial evidence that the last six men executed at San Quentin might have been conscious because they were still breathing when lethal drugs were administered.
He ordered anesthesiologists to be on hand, or demanded that a licensed medical professional inject a large, fatal dose of a sedative instead of the additional paralyzing agent and heart-stopping drugs used. No medical professional, however, was willing to participate.
Attorneys for Morales alleged in a lawsuit that Morales might appear unconscious after being injected with a sedative, but internally he would succumb to excruciating pain, “burning veins and heart failure,” once the paralyzing and the death drug were administered.
Judge Jeremy Fogel’s ruling is here.
Flap supposes that a lethal injection in San Quentin is too good for Morales:
Maybe we can revert to this:
No justice for Terri Lynn Winchell today.
But, stay tuned as this is appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the United States Supreme Court.
Previous:
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
Technorati Tags: MichaelAngeloMorales,, ArnoldSchwarzenegger,, California,, KennethStarr,, TerriLynnWinchell,, LethalInjection