Lawyers for death row inmates are trying to question former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other top state officials as part of the ongoing legal challenge to California's lethal injection procedures.
In court papers filed Monday, Attorney General Kamala Harris asked a federal judge to block or limit efforts to depose Schwarzenegger and others in his administration involved in crafting new execution procedures last year, saying the evidence is irrelevant to whether the current lethal injection method poses a threat of an inhumane execution.
State lawyers argued in documents filed with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel that such evidence has "nothing to do with how California's current lethal injection regulations will work in practice."
Fogel is considering a five-year-old legal battle over the state's lethal injection procedures, and whether they pose an undue risk that a condemned prisoner will suffer a cruel and unusual death during an execution. Executions have been on hold since 2006 as the legal challenge has unfolded in federal court in San Jose.
The judge is scheduled next Tuesday to tour San Quentin's new execution chamber as part of the case. There are currently nearly 720 inmates on the state's death row.
Earlier in the case, Fogel found that the state's execution method was flawed, prompting Schwarzenegger to instruct state prison officials to devise new procedures that would address the judge's concerns. Lawyers for death row inmates are seeking information on how state officials chose to craft the new regulations, including communications from the former governor, as well as his deposition.
Howard Mintz
No comments:
Post a Comment