California Prohibits Lethal Injection

“Today has been the most significant day in the history of the death penalty in America in many years,” said Jamie Fellner, the director of the Human Rights Watch program, referring to Friday, December 15, 2006. On this day, Governor Jeb Bush suspended all upcoming executions in the state of Florida. The causes of the suspension were a problem with an execution that occurred this past Wednesday and the fact that many believe execution is unconstitutional. The troubled execution was that of Angel N. Diaz. Because of the trouble, it took two doses and thirty-four minutes for Diaz to die. On Friday, a federal judge claimed that execution in California violates the 8th Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. This was carefully considered for four days and may be the fullest consideration of whether lethal injection is a violation to the Constitution. Since the reinstallation of the death penalty in 1976, California has executed thirteen people, and has had six-hundred and fifty people on death row, which is the largest number of people on death row in the United States. Florida, on the other hand, has executed a total of sixty-four people since 1976. Judge Fogel has been concerned with the chemicals being used for the lethal injection, and believes it is unconstitutional to use two of them. There are three chemicals in all: one that causes unconsciousness, one that paralyzes the inmate, and one that stops the heart. The last two are believed to be unconstitutional because the one that paralyzes the inmate would cause him or her to be conscious while suffocating. The last chemical is potassium chloride, which would be very painful. However, Judge Fogel also suggested that if inmates were executed the way animals were euthanized, the constitutional concerns would be eliminated.


On February 18, 1972, The California Supreme Court declared that the death penalty violated the Constitution as cruel and unusual punishment. Because of this, over one-hundred inmates were taken off death row and resentenced. The same happened in 1976, when sixty-eight inmates were resentenced.