NOW THAT PROP 34 WENT DOWN THE TUBES, WHAT’S NEXT FOR CALIFORNIA’S DEATH ROW SQUATTERS?

Will the welcome defeat of Prop 34 really change the status quo of the 726 death row inmates that have been squatting there because of California’s de facto moratorium on executions?

Here are some excerpts from ‘Defeat of Proposition 34: California’s death penalty battle will continue,” a report by Howard Mintz that was published on November 7 in the San Jose Mercury News:

[Because of Prop 34’s defeat] “the political feud will take a backstage to the status quo on California's death row, where 726 inmates await execution in a state that has had a moratorium on executions for nearly seven years. Legal challenges to the state's lethal injection method will resume. Death penalty advocates will push the state prison system to adopt a single-drug execution method to short-circuit the court battles. And at least 14 inmates have exhausted their legal appeals, raising the prospect California could have an unprecedented spate of executions if the legal obstacles are removed.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe will try to unclog the system next week, when he'll ask a judge to bypass state and federal court orders halting executions by allowing the state to immediately put condemned killer Robert Fairbank to death with a single lethal drug. California's three-drug procedure has been blocked by the courts for years, but death penalty supporters say California can join other states such as Washington, Arizona and Ohio in using the lone drug option.”

Howard Mintz failed to mention that Texas has carried out several executions using a single dose of pentobarbital in its lethal drug protocol. Despite numerous appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to stop executions in which a single drug injection was used.

I want to wish DA Steve Wagstaffe all the luck in the world, but if I were him, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a California judge to allow the immediate execution of Robert Fairbank with a single lethal drug injection. And even if he does find a judge who will approve his motion, Fairbank will continue to squat on death row for some time to come because there will be a slew of attorneys filing last minute appeals on his behalf.

Even though 14 death row inmates have exhausted their legal appeals, they too will not face execution anytime soon for the same reason that Fairbank will not be executed immediately.