Free Republic

What happened to California's death penalty? There has not been an execution since 2006, when a federal judge ruled against the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld three-drug executions. It didn't matter. Though as candidates Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris -- who both personally oppose capital punishment -- promised to uphold the law, in real life they've let things slide. Fed up, two men related to murder victims have filed suit to push the state to carry out the law. Kermit Alexander wants to see the law work on Tiequon Cox,...

A federal judge canceled plans to tour California's new execution chamber later this month and temporarily halted proceedings in a lawsuit challenging the state's death penalty. U.S. District Court Jeremy Fogel (FOE-gol) in San Jose delayed litigation in the federal lawsuit filed by condemned killer Michael Morales because a state court judge on Oct. 31 invalidated the state's death penalty on administrative grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court has also been halting executions nationwide while it considers a challenge to Kentucky's lethal injection execution method. Fogel ordered lawyers to return to his courtroom in Jan. 17 to consider the next steps.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday ordered his administration to fix problems in California's lethal injection protocol "to ensure the death penalty procedure is constitutional." Schwarzenegger acted in response to a stinging decision issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, who said the state's system "is broken, but … can be fixed." "I am committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that the lethal injection process is constitutional so that the will of the people is followed and the death penalty is maintained in California," Schwarzenegger said in a formal statement. "My administration will take immediate...

Anyone curious about the motives of the federal judge who has temporarily put the brakes on executions in California should know this: Jeremy Fogel comes with plenty of personal biases. He leans decidedly toward the San Francisco Giants. He would probably rule in favor of the jazz stylings of pianist Keith Jarrett. And he's partial to the steam-poached salmon with Dijon beurre blanc when dining at Maddalena's in Palo Alto. His true feelings about the death penalty, however, are not up for discussion. ``My feeling is that it's constitutional,'' Fogel said this week in an interview with the Mercury News....

NEVER FORGET ...At the end of the Day yesterday, Friday August 15, 2003 San Jose U.S. District Court JEREMY D. FOGEL ruled that in 2 weeks he may push California's October 7, 2003 Election to Recall and Replace Friend of CLINTON California Gov. GRAY DAVIS back to the March 2004 Presidential Primary Election, thus increasing DAVIS' Chances for Survival. ...Shades, perhaps, of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge and Friend of the CLINTONS ..STEPHEN REINHARDT's getting a retired 9th Circuit Judge other than himself to ban our "UNDER GOD" Pledge of Allegiance in our California Schools over a...