UPDATE SEPT. 29, 5 p.m. PT: It is with great joy that I announce that your actions have once again had a huge impact; the scheduled execution of Albert Brown in California has been halted. Legal experts had predicted for weeks that the execution would not occur due to the many remaining legal challenges and uncertainties regarding the state’s method of execution. These challenges were based, in part, on the objections that you and other members of the public raised during the public comment process on lethal injection.
Judy Kerr, the Outreach Coordinator for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has a moving op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle today about the impact of scheduled executions and the chaos that surrounds them on victims’ families.
We do not expect any more executions to be scheduled in California this year due to a national shortage of one of the three drugs used for lethal injections.
Thank you for your continued support. This success would not have been possible without it.
Sincerely,
The Staff of Death Penalty Focus
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The California Attorney General’s office, headed by Jerry Brown, is continuing to push for executions despite the fact that there are still many unanswered legal questions about the administration of lethal injection.
Please send the Attorney General a message stating your opposition to restarting executions. Albert Brown was scheduled to be executed on September 30 at 9 p.m., but he received a stay from a federal judge. Please ask Jerry Brown to refrain from appealing the stay.
The letter is pasted below, but you can quickly sign the letter online here.
I respectfully request that your office stop seeking executions. There are too many unanswered questions about the execution process; thus, proceeding with the execution of Albert Brown on September 30th would be hasty and reckless. Please do not appeal the stay!
Nearly 30,000 Californians objected to the new lethal injection regulations during a 14 month public comment process. The objections, include, among others, concerns over using a paralytic drug, which the state still intends to use; the enormous cost of carrying out executions; the denial of the media’s right to witness all aspects of the execution, in violation of the First Amendment; and concerns over whether the religious rights of the person to be executed would be protected. None of these problems have been addressed.
Please do everything in your power to ensure that no executions occur while these important questions remain unanswered.
Sincerely,