WASHINGTON - December 18 - Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, issued the following statement in response to U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel's ruling that California's lethal injection procedure represents "an undue and unnecessary risk" of a violation of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment:

"Judge Fogel's ruling comes at a time when numerous states across the country are encountering significant legal challenges to the constitutionality of their respective lethal injection methods. Earlier today, in the wake of a horribly botched execution, Florida Governor Jeb Bush created a commission on administration of lethal injection to examine the constitutionality of that state's lethal injection protocol.

"While Judge Fogel's ruling chastises California for continuing to administer a procedure that 'lacks both reliability and transparency,' the flaws that taint the state's death penalty system go well beyond the specifics of its executing mechanism. It is plagued by racial bias and there remains the very real possibility of executing an innocent person. California officials should not waste the state's valuable resources trying to 'perfect' the apparatus of death. Instead, they should unequivocally reject the death penalty, which is both futile and irreparably flawed, and focus instead on developing genuine solutions to crime. The continuing search for an 'ideal' way to extinguish a human life is no sign of a humane, evolved society. California can and must do better."

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