SAN JOSE, Calif. — A San Jose federal judge toured California’s new execution chamber Tuesday morning, trying to evaluate whether the state has fixed a key problem in its lethal injection process.

With a phalanx of lawyers, court staffers, prison officials and media in tow, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel spent about an hour moving through each room of San Quentin State Prison’s newly constructed lethal injection wing. Fogel’s expedition is part of his review of a five-year challenge to California’s lethal injection method that will continue to unfold in the coming months.

The antiseptic, scrubbed white lethal injection facility opened in September. A lime-green gurney rests in the center of the chamber, windows looking into the death chamber from adjoining witness rooms, where victims’ families, inmates’ relatives and others would watch an execution.

San Quentin’s old execution chamber was designed as a gas chamber, and was dingy and cramped. The new chamber more resembles a wing of a medical clinic. Fogel was reserved in his questioning, giving few hints as to whether the lethal injection chamber near the prison’s death row addresses his previous concerns.

Fogel has put executions on hold in California while he considers the lethal injection challenge. In 2006, the judge identified serious flaws in the state’s execution procedures, including finding that the state’s old death chamber was antiquated and may not have enough safeguards to ensure a humane execution. As a result, California spent roughly $900,000 on the new chamber, which is designed solely for lethal injections.

 


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