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The Tide is Turning on California's Death Penalty

James Clark,
老澳门开奖结果 of Southern California
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May 10, 2011

The ongoing debacle of California鈥檚 death penalty took a few dramatic turns last week: a new poll showed a dramatic shift in public opinion in favor of ending the death penalty; Gov. Jerry Brown took a step in the right direction by cutting plans for a new death row; and the Department of Corrections announced that the state鈥檚 hold on executions will last at least through this year, if not longer. At the same time, the California Democratic Party pushed even further in their advocacy against the death penalty.

First thing鈥檚 first: the poll. David Binder Research conducted a poll of highly likely California voters and found that from the budget by converting the 713 existing death sentences to life imprisonment without parole, plus work and restitution for victims鈥 families. The support cuts across California鈥檚 geographic and political spectrums 鈥 majorities in all regions and all political affiliations agreed. The simple reason is that cutting the death penalty will save in five years, and voters from Eureka to San Diego, whether right, left or moderate, can all figure out better ways to spend those billion dollars.

Last Thursday, Gov. Brown went halfway to fulfilling the voters鈥 wishes. Well, really it was a little more than a third of the way, since the governor鈥檚 decision to scrap the state鈥檚 plans for what some legislator鈥檚 called a saved California $350 million. Saying that it was to spend so much money on death row inmates while children and seniors are facing drastic cuts, Gov. Brown decided (just like the rest of us) that there are better ways to use the state鈥檚 dwindling dollars than on the death penalty. The only problem is that he didn鈥檛 finish the job 鈥 now he鈥檚 left the existing death row overcrowded and growing.

In fact, the death row construction project survived for so long because it was viewed as the cheapest option to deal with the problems on death row, including the fact that it is full beyond capacity and the facility is falling apart. The state has to do something, and all the other options on the table cost even more money. The only thing that will actually prevent the state paying more money on prison construction is for the governor to convert all death sentences to life imprisonment without parole, a move that would also save hundreds of millions, including reducing housing costs for death-row inmates and legal fees for their representation.

Also last week, state attorneys informed a federal judge that , meaning California鈥檚 five-year-long hold on executions will continue for at least another year. Executions were halted because California made in carrying out the small number of executions that have happened, but that鈥檚 just one of the problems clogging up California鈥檚 machinery of death. Almost half the people on death row don鈥檛 even have one of the attorneys needed to challenge the death sentence.

Fed up with California鈥檚 costly and ineffective death penalty, Democratic activists and delegates descended on the in Sacramento last weekend to urge the party to call on Gov. Brown to convert death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. After a groundswell of grassroots support for cutting the death penalty, more than 650 party delegates (around a third of the delegates present) signed the resolution. By the end of the convention, the resolution had been referred with strong support to the executive board, and many members of the party鈥檚 leadership agreed to urge the governor to finish the job he started and save a full $1 billion. Chairman John Burton expressed the need for the party to stand united in its call for the governor to cut the death penalty and for all Democrats to stay true to their platform which already supports replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment.

Is anyone picking up on a theme here? The dominoes are falling fast as more and more people in California are learning what a waste the death penalty has become. They know people have spent 30 years trying to make it work quickly, efficiently, cheaply, and fairly, and they have failed. Even major news sources like the and have seen the obvious, with the L.A. Times writing an exasperated call to "Just abolish it."

The governor was absolutely right to call our spending on the death penalty in these times of crisis what it is: 鈥渦nconscionable.鈥

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