Scott Rate
August, 2011
A new effort is under way to ban the death penalty in California and close death row.
The death penalty is popular among Californians, but those who want to get rid of it think the cost might change minds.
California voters could decide in the November 2012 election the fate of more than 700 notorious criminals currently locked up in San Quentin’s death row.
The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee approved legislation SB 490 by Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) that would put a measure on the ballot replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole as the state’s most extreme punishment.
It would apply not only to future crimes but also change the sentences of those already on death row now to permanent imprisonment.
Hancock stated that it costs the state $184 million a year to keep more than 700 people on death row, and that only 13 criminals have been executed in the last 33 years. Furthermore, no one has been executed since 2006 because lethal injection is being legally challenged.
“California’s death row is the largest and most expensive in the United States, and it is not helping protect our people. It is helping bankrupt us,” said Hancock.
Additionally, Hancock stated, “The death penalty is not the swift and certain punishment that experts tell us most effectively deters crime.’’
The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 5-2 along party lines to approve SB 490 even though it was met with strong opposition.
Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills) opposed the measure, saying the state should instead reform the system to “speed up the process.” He said other states, such as Arizona, spend much less to enforce the death penalty. He also said there was a large cost in keeping inmates in prison for life. The bill goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee next.
Law enforcement groups strongly oppose abolishing the death penalty because we believe it’s a deterrent and it helps save cops’ lives.
Our lobbyist, Tim Yaryan, testified at the hearing, “If somebody is going to kill a cop, they know they’re going to face a death sentence. It’s going to protect that police officer.”
Additionally, victims’ rights groups are upset about the possibility of changing the sentences of death-row inmates to something they consider lighter.
“How do we go to them and say, ‘Although you thought you received justice, sorry, we’re going to take that away now’?” said Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for Crime Victims United.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League shares the public’s support of the death penalty. The penalty, in its current form, is a legally appropriate response to the most heinous of crimes. Indeed, the nature of some of these crimes can be so reprehensible that death, in its severity and finality, would be the only commensurate punishment. Our system of justice must have this most ultimate punishment at its disposal. Moreover, this penalty deters future criminality and permanently removes the threat of potential future offenses.
Additionally, we believe that the provisions of this bill that convert an already imposed death sentence to life without parole are extremely unfair to communities expecting justice and to victims’ families, who have been promised the ultimate closure. We cannot imagine the conversations officers would have with victims if this bill were to pass and our members were faced with the duty of telling victims’ families that after the years of court proceedings, their loved one’s murderer would no longer be facing the death penalty. This is especially unimaginable in cases where sentences have been affirmed by the California Supreme Court and are now awaiting federal disposition. Furthermore, the conversion of these sentences raises potential issues of constitutional separation of powers inasmuch as the Legislature would be effectively changing sentences that were appropriately imposed by the judiciary.
Finally, we must acknowledge that we agree with your frustration over the cost of administering the death penalty. However, our agreement ends there, as we would rather fix the problems we see instead of abolishing the penalty altogether.
We cannot agree with a course of action that eliminates the death penalty completely when common-sense remedies to many of the operational impediments have been identified but rebuked.
Governor Jerry Brown opposes capital punishment. It will be interesting to see what he does if the bill gets to his desk, because in a field poll last year, nearly three in five of Brown’s supporters favored the death penalty.
Stay tuned …
As always, I can be reached at (213) 251-4587 or scottrate@lappl.org.
