Last week the California Supreme Court upheld most of proposition 66, which aims to speed up the death penalty process and was approved by voters in 2016.
If a federal judge finds the lethal injection procedures constitutional, execution dates could be set within a year for 18 prisoners.
That would include four from the Bay Area, whose final appeals of their death sentences have been rejected.
California has the largest number of death row inmates in the county, nearly 750 people. The last execution was performed in January 2006. Soon after, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose stopped further executions until the state fixed problems with injection procedures and staff training.
Fogel said that there were serious risks of botched and painful executions in violation of constitutional standards.
The state dragged its feet for years when it came to executions, but now that Prop 66 passed maybe we can finally get things done.