California recently released its revised lethal injection guidelines, following a June public hearing on the protocol. The 25-page document indicates small revisions, outlining such items as to when the curtains remain open in the execution chamber to definitions of the term “chaplain” and “lethal injection room.” Natasha Minsker, the Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California called the revisions superficial. Minsker added, "In the current state of the state, we are still wasting money tinkering with the death penalty system." Minsker suggested that by turning death sentences to life in prison without parole, the state could save $1 billion over five years. Terry Thorton, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson, explained that the public review process of the protocol still has several more steps before actually being adopted. "If during the next comment period it requires more changes, we have to put it out again," she said. The public has until January 20, 2010 to comment on the changes, and the state has until May 1, 2010, to complete its public review process. For links to the revisions and full text of the protocol, see below.
On March 8, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland postponed the execution of Lawrence Reynolds, who was found unconscious in his death row cell hours before he was to be driven to the execution facility. Reynolds, who was sentenced to die for a murder in 1994, apparently took an overdose of pills despite being under a 72-hour watch that includes frequent monitoring by prison guards. He was found unconscious in his cell around 11:30 pm, and was rushed to a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. Ohio State Penitentiary spokeswoman Julie Walburn confirmed that Reynolds was alone in his death row cell. The state has rescheduled his execution for March 16. This is the second time the state has postponed Reynolds' lethal injection. He was scheduled for execution in October 2009, but Gov. Strickland delayed executions so the state could review its lethal injection procedure following the failed attempt to execute Romell Broom. Since then, Ohio became the first state to adopt a one-drug lethal injection protocol, a method that Reynolds has challenged.
On March 2, Washington became the second state to switch its lethal injection method from the three-drug cocktail used in almost all states to a one-drug protocol. Ohio was the first state to change to the single-drug protocol after the failed execution attempt involving Romell Broom. Broom was ultimately removed from the execution chamber when the correctional officers were unable to complete the execution. In Washington, the one-drug protocol will be the presumed method, but the three-drug protocol remains an option for inmates who request it. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, who filed the new policy with the state Supreme Court, also asked the court to dismiss portions of death-row inmate Darold Stenson's appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection procedure. The state supported the constitutionality of its three-drug protocol but made the switch because "the one drug protocol is simpler… to administer, and it no longer embroils the department in the legal challenges to the three-drug protocol," according to Dick Morgan, prisons director for the state Department of Corrections.