Death penalty: lethal injection protocol.

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 an intravenous lethal injection of a nonspecified substance or substances by standards established under the direction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. If no election is made, the penalty of death shall be imposed by lethal injection. This bill would specify that, on or after January 1, 2013, the substance to be used for the lethal injection shall be an ultra-short-acting barbiturate or other similar drug, not to be used in combination with a chemical paralytic. The bill would require the department to develop and implement a lethal injection protocol for this drug to be available for use on and after January 1, 2013. The bill would delete the requirement that the lethal injection be intravenous.