Executions in California may resume by the end of the year — with one inmate being put to death by lethal injection each month — as a result of today’s Supreme Court ruling, a high-level state prosecutor said.
Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Dane Gillette, who has defended the state’s lethal injection procedures against a federal court challenge, said he believes it is “certainly feasible” to resume executions by the end of the year.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose had ordered a temporary halt to executions in California after finding the state’s lethal injection procedures were unconstitutional. A decision by Fogel on whether a new execution protocol by the state meets constitutional requirements is pending.