BILL NUMBER: SB 1018	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Harman

                        FEBRUARY 10, 2010

   An act to amend Section 3604 of the Penal Code, relating to the
death penalty.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1018, as introduced, Harman. Death penalty: sodium thiopental.
   Existing law provides that a person sentenced to death shall have
the opportunity to elect to have the punishment imposed by lethal gas
or by a lethal injection of a nonspecified substance by standards
established under the direction of the Department of Corrections. If
no election is made, the penalty of death shall be imposed by lethal
injection.
   This bill would specify that the substance to be used for the
lethal injection shall be sodium thiopental.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 3604 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
   3604.  (a)  The punishment of death shall be inflicted by the
administration of a lethal gas or by an intravenous injection of
 a substance or substances   sodium thiopental
 in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death, by standards
established under the direction of the Department of Corrections 
and Rehabilitation  .
   (b)  Persons sentenced to death prior to or after the operative
date of this subdivision shall have the opportunity to elect to have
the punishment imposed by lethal gas or lethal injection. This choice
shall be made in writing and shall be submitted to the warden
pursuant to regulations established by the Department of Corrections
 and Rehabilitation  . If a person under sentence of death
does not choose either lethal gas or lethal injection within 10 days
after the warden's service upon the inmate of an execution warrant
issued following the operative date of this subdivision, the penalty
of death shall be imposed by lethal injection.
   (c)  Where the person sentenced to death is not executed on the
date set for execution and a new execution date is subsequently set,
the inmate again shall have the opportunity to elect to have
punishment imposed by lethal gas or lethal injection, according to
the procedures set forth in subdivision (b).
   (d)  Notwithstanding subdivision (b), if either manner of
execution described in subdivision (a) is held invalid, the
punishment of death shall be imposed by the alternative means
specified in subdivision (a).