A death-row inmate argues that long delays to executions are unconstitutional as only 13 of the 900 people sentenced to death since 1978 have been executedA federal appeals court considering whether California’s death penalty is unconstitutional because of excessive delays focused on Monday mainly on procedural issues over whether a killer’s novel legal theory had been addressed by the state supreme court.In the case of a Los Angeles rapist and murderer on death row for more than two decades, three judges on the ninth US circuit court of appeals wanted to know if all appeals were exhausted in state court before a federal judge ruled last year that the death penalty was dysfunctional because of unpredictable delays that have seldom led to executions.