Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation giving condemned prisoners the choice of dying in San Quentin`s gas chamber or by lethal injection, a step aimed at avoiding last-minute court actions that delayed the April execution of Robert Alton Harris.
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”No one knows for sure whether a prisoner suffers in the gas chamber,”
said Assemblyman Tom McClintock. ”With lethal injection we know exactly what the person is going through because it`s exactly what someone undergoing surgery experiences.”
Similar bills were killed in 1987 and 1988, but the political climate changed after the Harris execution, which was challenged in the courts on the ground that death in the gas chamber constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
”Affording condemned inmates the choice of execution method will help prevent the type of last-minute legal circus we unfortunately witnessed with the Robert Alton Harris execution,” Wilson said in signing the bill.
Twenty-two states of the 36 states that have capital punishment allow lethal injection as the only method of execution or as an alternative method. California, Maryland and Arizona are currently the only states that authorize only lethal gas.
The new California law takes effect January 1. No executions are expected to take place before then.