Editorial: No room for sloppiness

State must clean up handling of executions

Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 22, 2006
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B6

In a preliminary decision made public last week, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel handed down a detailed and scathing critique of the way California carries out its death penalty.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has, to its credit, responded constructively. The governor has directed his legal affairs secretary to work with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to correct the many serious deficiencies Fogel identified.

The case before the court had nothing to do with whether the death penalty makes sense morally or as a matter of policy. The question, as outlined by the judge, was more narrow: "Does California's lethal-injection protocol -- as actually administered in practice -- create an undue and unnecessary risk that an inmate will suffer pain so extreme that it offends the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishing?"

In ruling that it does, Fogel described in detail the shockingly careless way in which California carries out the state's ultimate punishment.

During the course of his examination, Fogel visited San Quentin Prison, where California's executions are carried out. There he examined the state's gas chamber, which has been jury-rigged to serve as the site of executions by lethal injection. Holes have been drilled in the chamber walls to accommodate the intravenous lines through which lethal drugs are administered.

The drugs used in the executions are in bags suspended from hooks at the top of the chamber. The bags are hung so high it's impossible for the execution team to know whether the equipment is working properly.

The execution team is untrained in the administration of drugs. One team member, the judge noted, was disciplined for smuggling illegal drugs into San Quentin. Other team members admitted that they failed to follow the simple directions provided by the manufacturer of the anesthetic used to ensure that condemned inmates are unconscious before excruciatingly painful lethal drugs are administered.

"Given the fact that the state is taking a human life, the pervasive lack of professionalism in the implementation of (lethal injection executions) at the very least," Fogel wrote, "is deeply disturbing."

No matter whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, California's administration of it has been disgraceful. Before the state executes another person, it needs to be fixed. Schwarzenegger says he is committed to doing so. It is a commitment he should keep.

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