Judge plans on tossing California's death penalty

A Marin County judge is planning to toss out California's newly adopted lethal injection procedure.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal issued a tentative ruling Thursday saying prison officials failed to properly consider alternatives to the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used to execute inmates.

D'Opal said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also failed to disclose the costs of executions and failed to explain the reason for other procedures, such as shackling death row prisoners with waist restraints during visits and checking on them every 15 minutes for five days before a scheduled execution.

State attorneys will have a chance to change the judge's mind at a hearing Friday.

A federal judge had already put California executions on hold while considering a separate legal challenge.