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 On June 11, 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) again proposed changes to the lethal injection procedures that had previously been released to the public for review twice, once in May 2009 and again in January 2010. The most recent changes came after the state agency that oversees the rulemaking process (the Office of Administrative Law) rejected the proposed regulations. Any member of the public may comment on the changes, whether or not that person commented on the proposed regulations before. The CDCR must read and respond to all relevant comments.
Summary Analysis of Changes
I. The regulations now require that reporters who witness the execution be "reputable citizens," without explaining the term-this is confusing and potentially unfair.
The CDCR changed the regulations to require any reporter who witnesses the execution be a "reputable citizen" but does not define this term. It is unclear if this means simply a "non-governmental employee," as the word "citizen" is sometimes used in everyday speech, or if it means a "citizen" of the United States, or some other jurisdiction, as the word is sometimes used legally. If the CDCR intends to exclude reporters who are foreign nationals from witnessing executions, this is unnecessary and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
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 By Rev. Richard Benson, C.M.
Does an embryo have a soul? Isn't society justified in putting to death a criminal that has committed a capital crime? Why should taxpayers have to support health care and schooling for undocumented children? Why didn't Pope John Paul II agree to call President Bush's invasion of Iraq a "just war"? When did health care become a "right"?
All of these apparently unconnected questions actually involve the same central Catholic moral principle, the consistent ethic of life. This principle is often associated with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s 1983 proposal of the “seamless garment” analogy, a reference from John 19:23 to the seamless robe of Jesus, to provide a moral compass to help Catholics apply moral principles to life issues present in the public square.
Cardinal Bernardin suggested that a consistent ethic of life might be the most effective approach in addressing issues dealing with human life and dignity in a modern society more and more identified with the “culture of death.” His seamless garment approach suggests that all life issues such as abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, social injustice, racism, prejudice, poverty, unjust war and economic injustice are most effectively confronted when done so with a consistent application of moral principles that are firmly founded on the intrinsic value of human life.
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A Reflection Piece and Study Guide
Statement of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops
July 1999
Introduction
Having adopted the U. S. Bishops' statement, The Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty, we wish to put forth this document for pastors, preachers, and teachers to be used in preparation to disseminate the Church's teaching on the death penalty.
A critical hallmark of the Roman Catholic moral tradition is found in its insistence that the first right of the human person is the right to life. It does not belong to society, nor does it belong to public authority in any form, to recognize this right for some and not for others.[1]
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 At a hearing on the revised lethal injection protocols, speakers from around the state largely denounced the new execution procedures and voiced opposition to the death penalty in general. Only a handful of speakers spoke in support.
Fr. George Horan, co-director of the Office of Restorative Justice for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a chaplain at LA County's Men's Central Jail, questioned the requirement that a chaplain report the details of conversations with the condemned.
"Chaplains are there to be a loving and compassionate presence for those in prison," explained Fr. Horan. "They are not trained physiologists or part of the prison staff able to evaluate how something revealed in a conversation might be pertinent to the execution."
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