SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- California's attorney general said testimony about proposed lethal injection methods would be irrelevant to an investigation of current ones.
Attorney General Kamala Harris Monday asked a federal judge in San Jose to bar or limit the efforts of death row inmates' lawyers who want to depose former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials as part of their challenge to the state's execution procedures, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The inmates' lawyers want information, including Schwarzenegger's deposition and communications, on how California officials decided to craft the new execution regulations, the Mercury News said.
Kamala said any testimony from the governor would have nothing to do with whether the current method presents the danger of an inhumane execution.
The battle in federal court, which began in 2006 over whether a prisoner on death row would suffer a cruel and unusual death by the current injection methods, has caused the state's approximately 720 executions to be put on hold, the Mercury News reported.
The judge in the case said previously the execution method was flawed, causing the governor to instruct state prison authorities to create improved methods, the newspaper said.
