California Agency Rejects Proposed Execution Protocol

In a new setback to efforts to restart executions in California, the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has rejected the new lethal injection protocol proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. On December 28, 2016, the OAL, which is responsible for reviewing regulatory changes proposed in California, issued a 25-page decision of disapproval, citing inconsistencies, inadequate justification for certain parts of the proposal, and a failure to adequately respond to public comments. The agency gave the Department of Corrections four months to address problems in the protocol. The proposed protocol would have changed California’s previous three-drug procedure to a one-drug procedure, calling for 7.5 grams of one of four barbiturates. The OAL questioned whether the 7.5 gram dose met California’s requirement that a regulation be “necessary,” noting that corrections officials had said 5 grams of the barbiturate would be lethal and had provided no rationale as to why they chose a larger dose. It also requested clarification of numerous ambiguities in the new regulations, including the steps taken by correctional officials in the days leading up to the execution, what steps would be taken during the course of an execution if the prisoner did not immediately die, and what would be involved in monthly inspections of the execution chamber. Among the inadequate responses to public comments, the OAL noted that “[t]he Department’s response does not address the issue of ‘using methods that are untested or poorly understood’ or ‘human experimentation’ as it pertains to the use … for lethal injection purposes” of two of the drugs in the protocol. Executions in California have been on hold since 2006 because of legal challenges to the state’s lethal injection procedure. In November, voters narrowly passed Proposition 66, which proposes to speed up executions. Implementation of that proposition was blocked by the California Supreme Court, pending the outcome of a lawsuit.

(A. Koseff, “California rejects proposed new death penalty rules,” Sacramento Bee, January 4, 2017.) Read the Office of Administrative Law’s Decision of Disapproval here. See Lethal Injection.