STATE CAN PRESS DEATH PENALTY PROCEDURES.

Byline: Associated Press

A federal judge says prosecutors can try again to persuade federal courts in California that the state's procedures for appointing lawyers in death penalty cases are good enough to put the cases on a fast track under a recent law.

In a ruling made public in October, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said a Supreme Court decision five months ago required him to lift an injunction that has prevented California from trying to apply shorter deadlines in federal appeals of capital cases.

Those deadlines include six months to file a federal appeal, six months for the federal district judge to rule and four months for the appeals court to rule after receiving final written arguments. They would subtract several years from the current review process.

The deadlines apply only in states that have rules for the appointment, competency and reasonable compensation of lawyers handling death penalty appeals in state court after the initial appeal. Those second-level appeals, known as habeas corpus, typically involve claims of ineffective legal assistance and are usually a prisoner's best chance to overturn a death sentence.

So far, no state has been found to meet the standards, set by a 1996 federal law.

The ruling means federal judges in about 150 California death penalty cases will decide independently whether the state qualifies for the new timetables and other restrictions on capital appeals, said Michael Laurence, lawyer in the case that led to Henderson's injunction.

``It's a colossal waste of resources and time to resolve an issue which has already been resolved by the District Court (Henderson) and the 9th Circuit (Court of Appeals),'' Laurence said.