By C1 Staff
SACRAMENTO — A suit filed by crime victims seeks to force state correctional officials to adopt procedures for a single-drug, barbiturate-only method of execution.
KCRA reports that Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shellyanne Chang ruled that while the state is not ordered to resume executions, which have been on hold since 2006, officials can’t wait any longer to find a new way to conduct executions if they are reinstituted.
Chang found that the CDCR has a duty to adopt execution procedures, but has the sole discretion to decide how the state will carry out the death penalty.
The CDCR said it’s been drafting new lethal injection requirements without putting them into effect since Gov. Jerry Brown said in April 2012 that the state would switch to a single-drug lethal injection.
No executions can occur until the new rules are adopted by the department.