Schwarzenegger orders changes to California death penalty system

Schwarzenegger orders changes to California death penalty system

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered reforms of the state's death penalty program after a judge ruled the state's procedure for administering lethal injections was unconstitutional.

Schwarzenegger said his administration would seek to act swiftly on several key points raised by Judge Jeremy Foley, who ruled there was a risk that death row inmates receiving lethal injections were suffering unnecessarily.

"I am committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that the lethal injection process is constitutional so that the will of the people is followed and the death penalty in maintained in California," Schwarzenegger said.
"My administration will take immediate action to resolve court concerns which have cast legal doubt on California's procedure for carrying out the death penalty," he added in a statement.

The statement said California's legal and correctional facility officials will carry out a screening process and set up a comprehensive training program for execution team members and create standardized record-keeping.

The state would also look at ways of improving the death penalty procedure which would include seeking advice from the best experts in other states on lethal injection and its implementation.

Fogel said in his ruling last Friday that California's lethal injection protocol lacked "both reliability and transparency" which created "an undue and unnecessary risk" of inflicting pain.

Fogel stressed, however, that the lethal injection protocol used by the state could be remedied, ruling that it was "broken, but it can be fixed."
California's death-penalty program has been on hold since February when Fogel called off the lethal injection of murderer and rapist Michael Morales just hours before he was to be executed.

The California case is part of a nationwide debate on lethal injections, which have come in for criticism following the botched execution of a Florida inmate last week.

Florida Governor
Jeb Bush halted executions in the state following that case.