Kill 'Em While We Can

They must be worried.

How else to account for it?

723 men and women on the row.  Just 13 executions.  It's been over 6 years since the last one.

But suddenly . . .

They must be worried.

How else to account for it?

They've spent years litigating around the margins, insisting that they can save the three-drug sequence the judge says is unconstitutional rather than switching to a one-drug scheme he says is likely fine.

But suddenly . . .

They must be worried.

How else to account for it?

Governor no-longer-Moonbeam Brown said just three-days after that they should consider switching to the one-drug method.

And suddenly . . .

They must be worried.

How else to account for it?

Because suddenly . . .

Kent Scheidegger, who may or may be worried himself, explains.

The legal theory in this motion is, in part, the same as in CJLF's petition for writ of mandate, noted in this post.  The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a duty to execute these sentences.  While that department has broad discretion on the specifics, continuing to litigate the enjoined three-drug protocol for years after the federal court has given the go-ahead to resume executions with a one-drug protocol is an abuse of that discretion.

Because they must be worried.

Which is why, suddenly . . .

Dan Whitcomb for Reuters:

Los Angeles prosecutors asked a judge on Wednesday to order the execution of two condemned killers using a single drug for lethal injections, a move intended to end a 6-year hold on the death penalty in California over the method used by the state.

The move comes days after Democratic Governor Jerry Brown told prison officials to consider using the single-drug execution protocol, and ahead of a November ballot measure that seeks to repeal capital punishment in the state.

Maybe it's just me, but the tea leaves here suggest that they're really scared abolition will pass.  And they won't get to kill all those folks.