California to Resume Executions?

[CrazyMailMan]

I saw on the news tonight that a judge viewed the new execution chamber at San Quentin and will soon be making a decision as to whether or not California will resume executions. They had suspended executions because the old execution chamber was deemed cruel and unusual punishment. So California spent somewhere around $900,000 on a new one. We will see what happens...

[Goonswifey]

Still can't resume without the drugs. I think it will be awhile before anything happens.

[CrazyMailMan]

They have the drugs...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...e_N.htm?csp=34

[lisainengland]

Sadly California do have the drugs although some states are struggling to find sodium thiopental

[mammastalkin]

Inmates from CA have joined in a lawsuit against the FDA:
It’s these shipments that are at issue in the lawsuit filed last week against the FDA by the high-powered D.C. law firm of Sidley Austin. According to The Informant, ”many death penalty watchers have raised questions about the quality and legality of those drugs–saying that if the drug malfunctions, inmates could experience tremendous pain while dying, which they say violates the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.” It is the FDA’s job to make sure that drugs imported to the United States are safe and effective, the lawsuit claims, and their actions with regard to the execution drug is illegal. (The full text of the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. on behalf of six inmates from Arizona, California, and Tennessee, can be found here.) The plaintiffs in the civil suit are seeking a declaratory judgement. If they succeed–or even if their case simply takes its time making its way through the courts–they could delay executions in several states.
Read the entire article here.