California recent­ly released its revised lethal injec­tion guide­lines, fol­low­ing a June pub­lic hear­ing on the pro­to­col. The 25-page doc­u­ment indi­cates small revi­sions, out­lin­ing such items as to when the cur­tains remain open in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber to def­i­n­i­tions of the term ​“chap­lain” and ​“lethal injec­tion room.” Natasha Minsker, the Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California called the revi­sions super­fi­cial. Minsker added, ​“In the cur­rent state of the state, we are still wast­ing mon­ey tin­ker­ing with the death penal­ty sys­tem.” Minsker sug­gest­ed that by turn­ing death sen­tences to life in prison with­out parole, the state could save $1 bil­lion over five years. 

Terry Thorton, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesper­son, explained that the pub­lic review process of the pro­to­col still has sev­er­al more steps before actu­al­ly being adopt­ed. ​“If dur­ing the next com­ment peri­od it requires more changes, we have to put it out again,” she said. The pub­lic has until January 20, 2010 to com­ment on the changes, and the state has until May 1, 2010, to com­plete its pub­lic review process. For links to the revi­sions and full text of the pro­to­col, see below.

(S. Smith, ​“State moves clos­er to resum­ing exe­cu­tions,” Stockton Record, January 6, 2009). Read the pro­posed revi­sions to the the pro­to­col. Read the full text of the pro­posed pro­to­col. See Lethal Injection.

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