State unveils new lethal-injection chamber at San Quentin State Prison

As the clock ticks down to the first execution in California in nearly five years, state corrections officials Tuesday unveiled the newly built lethal-injection chamber at San Quentin State Prison where they intend to put rapist-murderer Albert Greenwood Brown to death in a week.

The hexagonal room built to comply with a federal court order contains only a gurney covered in pistachio-colored vinyl and a clock on the wall above where the condemned man is to be injected with three drugs fed through tubes from the adjacent Infusion Control Room.

“We are fully prepared to carry out an execution on Sept. 29,” San Quentin State Prison Warden Vincent Cullen said as he accompanied journalists on a tour of the death chamber built with inmate labor and $853,000 in taxpayer money since the last execution in January 2006.

The facility was built in response to concerns outlined by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel when he halted the planned February 2006 execution of murderer Michael Morales. After hearing testimony about cramped conditions and poor lighting in the gas chamber that served as the execution venue for 11 previous lethal injections, Fogel ordered the deficiencies corrected, along with the state’s methods for putting the condemned to death. Two other men have been executed by gas since the death penalty was restored more than 30 years ago.

Fogel has yet to visit the chamber and assess whether it alleviates his concerns that some inmates may have been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in their executions. He is expected to make that inspection before efforts to execute Morales can resume, but no federal court edict stands in the way of Brown’s execution being carried out, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

A state appeals court lifted an injunction against executions on Monday, which Thornton said cleared the way for the state to carry out Brown’s death warrant in a week.

--Carol J. Williams reporting from San Quentin

Comments

[Cleo Watts]

As a black man, I say "Line em up and fire it up." CA has a heck of back log of savages sitting on Death Row. Time to clean house. The state should open an express lane.

[TheBigPicture]

“We are fully prepared to carry out an execution on Sept. 29,”

You mean you can't get that thing powered-up by tomorrow...

I think they should have used more earth tones and incorporated more of a feng shui theme...but that's just me...

[TheBigPicture]

Now how are we going to save Tookie...think people, think...

[John]

Did I read that correctly? The Judge was concerned that cramped conditions and poor lighting were cruel and unusual punishment for a man who was about to be put to death? Apparently, to become a judge, you really dont need common sense, you just have to have enough money to get through law school, and the school smarts to pass the bar.

[24afp]

agree with the first comment time to clean house. 1 shot in the dome is all they need to do