Coverage of the new California execution protocol

How Appealing has collected here all the major media coverage of California's new lethal injection protocol (basics here).  These snippets from this Los Angeles Times article highlights the practical realities of these new developments:

On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea L. Hoch, and James Tilton, director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the new protocol addressed all the issues U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel raised in finding that the state's previous procedures violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  And Schwarzenegger issued a statement saying, "I am committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that the lethal injection process is constitutional so the will of the people is upheld."

But lawyers for Michael Morales, the condemned killer whose challenge to lethal injection led to Fogel's ruling, made it clear they will challenge the new protocol in court....

Judge Fogel has scheduled a June 1 status conference in the Morales case.  It's unclear when the judge will rule on the state's plan, and until he does, there will be no executions in California.

I might add that, even if Judge Fogel approves the state's new protocol, this issue will surely come before the Ninth Circuit.  I would be shocked if there is an execution in California this year (or next for that matter) because of the lethal injection litigation.