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A federal judge ruled California's death penalty unconstitutional Wednesday, writing that lengthy and unpredictable delays have resulted in an arbitrary and unfair capital punishment system.California has not executed a prisoner since 2006.READ: California death penalty rulingThe decision by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney represents a legal victory for those who want to abolish the death penalty in California and follows a similar ruling that has suspended executions in the state for eight years.Since the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death, but only 13 have been executed. "As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary," the judge stated.The case was brought by a death row inmate against the warden of San Quentin state prison. Carney ruled that California's death penalty is an empty promise and violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment."Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the State," wrote Carney, a George W. Bush appointee.He noted that death penalty appeals can last decades and, as a result, most condemned inmates are likely to die of natural causes before their executions are carried out.Gil Garcetti, a former Los Angeles County district attorney who has become an anti-death-penalty activist, called the ruling "truly historic.""It further proves that the death penalty is broken beyond repair," he said, calling for capital punishment to be replaced with life in prison without the possibility of parole.Carney's ruling came in a legal petition brought by Ernest Dewayne Jones, sentenced to die in 1994 after being convicted of murdering and raping his girlfriend's mother.Jones remains on death row "with complete uncertainty as to when, or even whether," his execution will come, the judge wrote, adding, "Mr. Jones is not alone."Carney's ruling could be appealed by the governor or state attorney general, who both oppose the death penalty. For now, Jones will likely remain on death row.Carney noted that "arbitrary factors" such as the manner in which paperwork is handled are what "determine whether an individual will actually be executed."The ruling was not without critics. Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, former chairman of the California Board of Prison Terms, issued a statement saying, "The current system needs improvement, but to completely get rid of the death penalty is unconscionable for victims and their families and society."Victims and their families need and deserve justice. This ruling denies them and society justice."He said Californians have long supported the death penalty, and he urged Attorney General Kamala Harris to "uphold the will of the people" and appeal.Another federal judge put California's death penalty on hold in 2006 when he ruled the state's lethal injection procedures needed overhaul.The judge found that the state's procedures created too much risk that an inmate would suffer extreme pain while being executed. At that time, lethal injections were carried out in San Quentin's old gas chamber, which the judge found too cramped, too dark and too old for prison staff to properly administer execution drugs.Since then, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has built a new execution chamber on the grounds of San Quentin in Northern California and made a number of changes to its procedures to address the judge's concerns.A new federal judge has taken over the case and has not ruled on whether those changes are enough for the state to restart executions.Additionally, the corrections department is drafting a new set of regulations for administering lethal injections. No executions can take place until the new rules are formally adopted.Monterey County death row inmates:· Joseph Michael Nissensohn, 62, was sentenced to die in December 2013. The serial murderer killed two teenage girls in Carmel Valley in 1981. Tammy Lynn Jarschke, 13, and Tanya Jones, 14, ran away from a Seaside foster home together and met Nissensohn in Monterey. They were tied up to trees with electrical wire and tortured. Nissensohn was also convicted of murdering 15-year-old Kathy Graves in South Lake Tahoe. · Kristin William Hughes was convicted of the 1989 rape-murder of Kim Hickman in Pacific Grove. A pathologist testified at Hughes' trial that it took more than an hour for Hickman to die after being stabbed and strangled. Hughes' death sentence has been upheld by the state's Supreme Court.· Kenneth Bivert was sentenced to die for the 1997 fatal stabbing of another inmate at Salinas Valley State Prison. Bivert was in prison for the cold-blooded killings of three people he happened upon on the banks of the Sacramento River when he was 17 years old. His appeal was rejected by the state's high court.· Joseph Kekoa Manibusan was awaiting execution for the January 1998 "murders-for-fun" of two Peninsula women. Priya Mathews and Frances Olivo were shot to death during a crime spree by Manibusan and his then 17-year-old accomplice, Norman Willover, who was sentenced to life without parole. Manibusan's automatic appeal is pending with the Supreme Court.· Daniel Covarrubias was sentenced to die for the 1994 slaying of members of a Salinas family. Martha Morales was holding her 11-month-old daughter when she was gunned down. Also killed were her husband, Ramon Morales, and her brother, Fernando Martinez.· Ronald Moore was convicted of bludgeoning and stabbing 11-year-old Nicole Kathleen Carnahan to death when she interrupted a burglary as she arrived home from school in Salinas in March 1998. His automatic appeal was rejected by the state Supreme Court.