SeeCalifornia.com

Photo: The Gold Rush town of Placerville was once known as Hangtown.

During California’s Gold Rush if a person was found guilty of a crime and sentenced to death, justice was  meted out swiftly–usually right away, or within a day he’d be hung. The first state-conducted execution was held March 3, 1893 at San Quentin. The first execution at Folsom was December 13, 1895.  Today according to CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION there are 737 inmates on Death Row in California with the oldest surviving criminals having been there for over 40 years. Since 1978, 14 people have been executed while 60 people on Death Row died of natural causes and 22 committed suicide.

The right to be free of “cruel and unusual punishment” is the basis of an expected lawsuit in Ohio by the daughter and son of recently executed murderer, Dennis McGuire, who was injected and struggled for 25 minutes with an untested drug combo (midazolam and hydromorphone.)  It is relevant to California’s search to find a “humane” drug(s) for executions. On July 30, 2010, the Office of Administrative Law notified California department of corrections and rehabilitation that it had approved and certified for adoption the regulations for lethal injection of sodium thiopental. However, European manufacturers of such drugs are threatening to or have banned sales to U.S. states’ corrections departments with death penalty laws. Because of this situation, Virginia is considering bringing back the electric chair in their state.

There hasn’t been an execution in California since 2006. Under state law,  cases in which the death penalty has been decreed are automatically reviewed by the State Supreme Court. The Supreme Court may: Affirm the conviction and the death sentence; Affirm the conviction but reverse the death sentence (which results in a retrial of the penalty phase only); or Reverse the conviction (which results in a complete new trial). Even if the California Supreme Court affirms the death sentence, the inmate can initiate appeals on separate constitutional issues. The appeals process can last for decades. You can read a list of who’s on California Death Row, what they were convicted of, who has been executed and what their last meals consisted of. See: cdcr.ca.gov