The Chief Justice of California​’s Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, said recent­ly that she does not expect exe­cu­tions in California to resume for at least three years because of prob­lems with the lethal injec­tion process. California has already not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in sev­en years. Justice Cantil-Sakauye said major struc­tur­al changes to the state’s death penal­ty are unlike­ly, and that a pro­pos­al by the for­mer Chief Justice to speed death penal­ty appeals is ​“dead.” That pro­pos­al would have had state appel­late courts, rather than the California Supreme Court, han­dle appeals in cap­i­tal cas­es. Such a change would require a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment and greater fund­ing for appel­late courts. Those pro­pos­als have failed in the past. Californians nar­row­ly defeat­ed (52 – 48%) a bal­lot ini­tia­tive to repeal the death penal­ty and put some of the mon­ey saved into solv­ing cold cas­es. The state is spend­ing an esti­mat­ed $180 mil­lion per year on the death penalty.

(E. Green and P. Jones, ​“Chief jus­tice dis­cuss­es issues includ­ing court fund­ing, exe­cu­tions,” (sub­scrip­tion required), Daily Journal, December 18, 2012). See New Voices and Lethal Injection.

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