By . Paul Donnelley for MailOnline . California's attorney general said yesterday that she will appeal a federal court ruling that called the state's death penalty unconstitutional. The announcement by Attorney General Kamala Harris came after District Judge Cormac Carney in Los Angeles ruled last month that the state's death penalty takes too long to carry out, and that the unpredictable delays are arbitrary and unfair. Death penalty opponents have long argued that California's delays amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. Until Judge Carney's ruling, the argument failed to persuade a judge. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is appealing a federal court ruling that called the state's death penalty unconstitutional . Harris, however, said the amount of time it takes to execute inmates in California ensures they receive due process. 'I am appealing the court's decision because it is not supported by the law, and it undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants,' Attorney General Harris said in a prepared statement. 'This flawed ruling requires appellate review.' Capital punishment opponents had called on Attorney General Harris to let Judge Carney's ruling stand rather than risk it being overturned in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. 'We hope the 9th Circuit will recognise that California's death penalty system is as broken and unconstitutional as Judge Cormac found,' Matt Cherry, the executive director of Death Penalty Focus, which seeks to abolish capital punishment, said in response to Harris's move. Death penalty backers supported Attorney General Harris's decision. 'It is obviously the correct decision to make,' said Kent Scheidegger, the top lawyer at the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento. Judge Carney's ruling overturned the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones (above), a Los Angeles man sentenced to die for the 1992 rape and murder of his girlfriend's mother . Mr Scheidegger was attending a death penalty conference for government lawyers in San Diego and said that the initial ruling by Judge Carney 'has been the talk in the hallways' among attendees. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit is often viewed as a liberal-leaning court, but the three-judge panel that will consider the appeal by Harris will be randomly selected from the entire court of more than two dozen judges of varying political pedigrees. 'You never know what you're going to get,' Mr Scheidegger said of the 9th Circuit's three-judge panels. Attorney General Harris has said she personally opposes the death penalty but promised voters she would enforce state law. Judge Carney's ruling overturned the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones, a Los Angeles man sentenced to die for the 1992 rape and murder of his girlfriend's mother. Since the current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago, the judge noted, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed. No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 after another federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's lethal injection procedures . The judge called the death penalty an empty promise that violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. 'Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the state,' wrote Judge Carney, a George W. Bush appointee. He noted that death penalty appeals can last decades and, as a result, most condemned inmates are likely to die of natural causes before their executions are carried out. No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 after another federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's lethal injection procedures. In addition, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is drafting new lethal injection regulations after Governor Jerry Brown said the state would switch from a three-drug cocktail to a single-drug lethal injection. No executions can occur until the new rules are adopted.
Death penalty delays amount to 'cruel and unusual punishment', which is unconstitutional say opponents .
Current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago .
More than 900 people have been sentenced to death since 1978 but only 13 have been executed .
No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 .
By . Paul Donnelley for MailOnline . California's attorney general said yesterday that she will appeal a federal court ruling that called the state's death penalty unconstitutional. The announcement by Attorney General Kamala Harris came after District Judge Cormac Carney in Los Angeles ruled last month that the state's death penalty takes too long to carry out, and that the unpredictable delays are arbitrary and unfair. Death penalty opponents have long argued that California's delays amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. Until Judge Carney's ruling, the argument failed to persuade a judge. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is appealing a federal court ruling that called the state's death penalty unconstitutional . Harris, however, said the amount of time it takes to execute inmates in California ensures they receive due process. 'I am appealing the court's decision because it is not supported by the law, and it undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants,' Attorney General Harris said in a prepared statement. 'This flawed ruling requires appellate review.' Capital punishment opponents had called on Attorney General Harris to let Judge Carney's ruling stand rather than risk it being overturned in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. 'We hope the 9th Circuit will recognise that California's death penalty system is as broken and unconstitutional as Judge Cormac found,' Matt Cherry, the executive director of Death Penalty Focus, which seeks to abolish capital punishment, said in response to Harris's move. Death penalty backers supported Attorney General Harris's decision. 'It is obviously the correct decision to make,' said Kent Scheidegger, the top lawyer at the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento. Judge Carney's ruling overturned the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones (above), a Los Angeles man sentenced to die for the 1992 rape and murder of his girlfriend's mother . Mr Scheidegger was attending a death penalty conference for government lawyers in San Diego and said that the initial ruling by Judge Carney 'has been the talk in the hallways' among attendees. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit is often viewed as a liberal-leaning court, but the three-judge panel that will consider the appeal by Harris will be randomly selected from the entire court of more than two dozen judges of varying political pedigrees. 'You never know what you're going to get,' Mr Scheidegger said of the 9th Circuit's three-judge panels. Attorney General Harris has said she personally opposes the death penalty but promised voters she would enforce state law. Judge Carney's ruling overturned the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones, a Los Angeles man sentenced to die for the 1992 rape and murder of his girlfriend's mother. Since the current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago, the judge noted, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed. No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 after another federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's lethal injection procedures . The judge called the death penalty an empty promise that violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. 'Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the state,' wrote Judge Carney, a George W. Bush appointee. He noted that death penalty appeals can last decades and, as a result, most condemned inmates are likely to die of natural causes before their executions are carried out. No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 after another federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's lethal injection procedures. In addition, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is drafting new lethal injection regulations after Governor Jerry Brown said the state would switch from a three-drug cocktail to a single-drug lethal injection. No executions can occur until the new rules are adopted.
California's delays amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. Until death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago, the judge noted, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed. No executions have been carried out in executions have been carried out in California