Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will change the state's method of lethal injection to guarantee the execution procedure doesn't unconstitutionally inflict pain or discomfort on the condemned.

Officials will use a new screening process, train members of execution teams, standardize record keeping and find death penalty experts to advise California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Schwarzenegger said today in a statement.

The use of lethal injection in California and Florida was ordered halted last week because of questions about the length of such executions, and the possibility of causing pain and discomfort before death. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California, ruled that the method is unconstitutional because it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

``Schwarzenegger's statement indicated an acknowledgement that there are serious problems and that there will be substantive changes, not just a tweaking of the process,'' said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.

Lethal injection, used by 37 of 38 U.S. states that allow capital punishment, is a combination of chemicals meant to sedate, end breathing, and stop the heart of an inmate sentenced to death. In his Dec. 15 ruling, Fogel said execution logs showed that, in at least six of 13 California executions, inmates may not have been unconscious before being injected with the drugs that killed them, causing ``an unconstitutional level of pain.''

Review

In March, Fogel went to San Quentin State Prison to examine the equipment used for executions and hear testimony about how execution teams work. Fogel said he learned one team leader had been disciplined for smuggling drugs into the prison and that another led executions even though he was ``diagnosed with and disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his experiences in the prison system.''

Schwarzenegger said in the next 30 days his legal affairs secretary will work with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create a screening process to select execution teams and a system of periodic reviews of team members. The analysis will recommend improvements to San Quentin's equipment, lighting and execution team work space, the statement said.

``My administration will take immediate action to resolve court concerns which have cast legal doubt on California's procedure for carrying out the death penalty,'' Schwarzenegger said in the statement.

The ruling in San Jose involved Michael Morales, convicted in 1983 of the murder of 17-year-old Terry Lynn Winchell. Morales challenged his execution, arguing that he might remain conscious and experience excruciating pain when given the three-drug lethal injection.

Florida Penalty

David Senior, a lawyer representing Morales, didn't return a call seeking comment.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush last week suspended lethal injections in that state after a Dec. 13 execution took 34 minutes. The prisoner appeared to suffer, moved for 24 minutes and tried to speak as he died, said Suzanne Myers Keffer, his lawyer.

Bush, the brother of President George W. Bush, halted the signing of any additional death warrants in Florida until a commission he created to investigate the state's execution process completes its report, scheduled for March 1.

The California case is Morales v. Woodford, 06-219, U.S. District Court Northern District of California, San Jose.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@blooomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2006 18:44 EST