Tentative ruling: California must adopt new execution process

A state judge says California must adopt a new process for executing condemned inmates after nearly three years of delay.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shellyanne Chang’s tentative ruling Thursday does not order the state to resume executions, which have been on hold since 2006.

But she said corrections officials can’t wait any longer to find a new way to conduct executions should they be re-instituted.

The lawsuit brought by crime victims seeks to force state corrections officials to adopt procedures for a single-drug, barbiturate-only method of execution.

The department says it has been drafting new lethal injection regulations ever since Gov. Jerry Brown said in April 2012 that the state would switch to a single-drug lethal injection.

Chang’s ruling will take effect unless officials change her mind with oral arguments.