By Shayna M. Gelender, Field Organizer, ACLU of Northern California
For more than three years, California has had no executions. Now, the Governor and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) are considering new guidelines for how to restart executions, killing people by lethal injection.
Advocates are particularly concerned that the CDCR is trying to keep the public in the dark when it comes to executions. The proposed regulations:
- Limit the access of the media, preventing reporters from seeing critical parts of the process such as the mixing of the drugs.
- Hide the names of official witnesses from the public, even though these witnesses are present to represent the people of California.
- Do not allow the public, the media or even the attorney for the defendant to view the records made of the execution.
- Do not disclose the costs of executions.
Also, the CDCR has failed to allow members of the public to view all of the documents they relied on in developing the regulations, and has failed to notify those most affected, including women on death row.
In the midst of this budget crisis, we have more important things for state workers to do than spend their time – and our money – coming up with a new way to execute people.
Take action now to help prevent executions in California:
1. Submit your comments online. The government is required by law to read and consider all relevant comments, so what you say can truly make a difference. Weigh in prior to the hearing on June 30th.
2. Join us on Tuesday, June 30th in Sacramento for a Day of Action to End the Death Penalty. The Public Hearing on Lethal Injection Regulations will be held from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. in the Department of Health Services Auditorium, 1500 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento. Free buses will be leaving from San Francisco and Oakland. Sign up for a bus at information@deathpenalty.org. Following the hearing, we will march to the Capitol to tell the governor and our legislator what we think.
3. Learn more about the issues. A telephone briefing will be held on Friday, June 26 for those who RSVP.
