To get an idea how big the death penalty business is, were the Governor to convert all 700 death sentences in California to permanent imprisonment, it would save the state $1 billion over the next five years and we would not have to build another $400,000 in new death row housing--maybe we could spend it on schools?? Hiring more DA support staff? How about budgeting better raises?? What says ya'll??
It’s not just the practice of the death penalty that is being undermined; it’s the theory as well. The American Law Institute — the brain trust of the legal community — withdrew its support for the death penalty, finding, among other things, that it “is plagued by racial disparities; is enormously expensive even as many defense lawyers are underpaid and some are incompetent; risks executing innocent people; and is undermined by the politics that come with judicial elections.”
But California, oddly enough, has become a rogue state when it comes to death sentencing.
California accounted for 29 of those 106 death sentences in 2009, or 27 percent (more than double California’s share of the total U.S. population). The number is over 700 today. For all the forensic hormones that flow when talking about the death penalty, California has only executed 13 people since 1967. It takes more than 25 years for a case to move through all of the mandatory appeals. All executions have been on hold for four years as a result of legal challenges. We don’t have enough lawyers and judges to handle 700 death sentences. Half the people on death row don’t have an attorney, and the Supreme Court already spends almost one-third of its time on death penalty cases.
The system is simply overwhelmed, overburdened and overdue for change. California’s death penalty process is broken--should a District Attorney continue to pump more death penalty cases in?
Meanwhile, the state is spending hundreds of millions of precious dollars trying to prop the failed system up. Housing for just one person on death row costs $90,000 more per year than housing in the general prison population (itself a hefty $50,000 a year). That means we are now paying an extra $63 million a year for death row housing.
The Governor is right: we need to spend more money on education and less on prisons to bring back the safe, healthy and sustainable California we all dream of. One necessary step is to really look at the cases being approved for death penalty tracking.
Your thoughts??
Bob Conaway-Candidate for San Bernardino County District Attorney
What incredible courage of your convictions. Few people running for the office of prosecutor would be so forthright in claiming that the emperor has no clothes. The evidence clearly supports the conclusion that capital punishment is failed public policy. If held to the same standard as other public policies, it would have been rejected long ago. Thank you for speaking out and good luck in your quest.
ReplyDeleteIn California, a state that is spending $137 million per year on the death penalty, many homicide investigations have been put on hold due to a budget crisis in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is forcing officers to suspend work on their cases and take days or weeks off because of new overtime limits. One of the LAPD's most productive investigators sat idle for 6 weeks, unable to follow old leads or to pick up on new ones because he had accumulated overtime on cases. Homicide detectives have especially demanding work schedules that routinely require them to investigate a case through the nights and weekends. "The hours have to come from some place," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said. "It has a serious impact on our ability to respond to some of the large, violent incidents we've been experiencing lately. That is especially true of homicide investigations because of the long hours they demand." In one region, Southeast L.A., 9 of the 14 killings this year remain unsolved. "That is horrible compared to our typical rates," said Det. Sal LaBarbera, a 24-year homicide veteran who supervises the Southeast squad. "All of those cases are solvable. None of them are mysteries. A few of them would likely already be solved, if I could just let my guys loose to work."
ReplyDeleteOther police units in L.A. have also exceeded their overtime limits and are having to cut back on patrols. Specialized assignments like SWAT teams, canine and bomb units, and anti-gang officers will likely have to curtail their hours. In March, the number of hours that officers had to take off was equivalent to removing 290 officers from the police force.
(See Rubin, J., “Investigations sit idle as LAPD detectives hit overtime caps,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2010; death penalty information is from DPIC).