High court ruling could clear way for California executions to resume

[Mugu]

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer via sfgate.com

(04-16) 12:46 PDT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door today to the resumption of capital punishment nationwide, ruling that the combination of drugs that California and most other states use to execute inmates does not cause a substantial risk of severe pain and therefore is constitutional.

The justices' 7-2 ruling came in a case from Kentucky, which like California uses a powerful anesthetic to render an inmate unconscious, followed by a paralyzing drug that halts breathing and a chemical that stops the heart.

At least 30 states of the 36 that provide for lethal injection use that combination. Condemned prisoners in virtually all those states have contended in lawsuits that the process lacks safeguards to make sure the anesthetic is effective, creating the risk that the inmate will remain conscious and in agony while dying - and, because of the paralyzing drug, will be unable to cry out.

In California, which has the nation's largest Death Row with 669 inmates, executions have been on hold since February 2006, when U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose granted a stay to Michael Morales of Stockton, convicted of raping and fatally beating 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi in 1981.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/16/BA6R106K81.DTL">Complete article

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Allowing the state to kill people is fine, as long as their deaths are painless

What a crazy, fucked-up country this is.