The Dismantling of California's Death Penalty Facilities

The Dismantling of California’s Death Penalty Facilities

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The gas chamber and lethal injection facilities have been dismantled at the San Quentin State Prison.

The California Department of Corrections is working with Governor Gavin Newsom following his executive order suspending all executions indefinitely. The chamber was closed on March 13, 2019. The San Quentin Gas Chamber has been officially dismantled since 10:56 a.m. on Wednesday and the Lethal Injection Facility by 10:20 a.m.

Death Row inmates, like Scott Peterson who killed his wife Laci Peterson and his unborn son Conner in December 2002, will remain on death row. Other than by appeal, the sentences will not change, they will remain sentenced to death.
All future convicts can still be sentenced to death, but none will be scheduled while to moratorium remains.

The death penalty was reinstated in 1978, and there have been only 13 executions since. The most recent execution in California, which houses around ¼ of all death row inmates, was in 2006.