Death Penalty Repeal Legislation Moves Forward -- Is It Enough?

SB490 (Hancock) appears to be moving ahead in the state legislature. The bill would eliminate California's death penalty as a punishment option for first degree murder with special circumstances, and it would convert ALL current death penalty cases to "Life in Prison without Parole."

At the present time California has 714 persons on "death row." Since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1978, there have been 13 executions, while 78 died of natural or other causes.

While the death penalty sentence meets the visceral demands of many in response to some terrible crimes, especially against children, families and women, there are several reasons that argue against it.

For instance in 2009, three counties (Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange) accounted for the majority of death sentence cases. One amazing statistic tells of Los Angeles County sending more to death row than the entire state of Texas in one year. (One could say, "do not move to LA!")

At the present time the California Supreme Court is backlogged on the automatic appeal of these cases. Right now, that automatic appeal process is taking an average between 11.7 and 13.7 years! What this means is that the sentenced individual literally sits around awaiting this legal action taken in his or her case. Then all the other legal and expensive haggling in court begins.

In California the time between sentencing in any county courthouse and the execution is a stunning 20 to 25 years! Meanwhile, the legal defense meter is running the whole time, at the expense of California taxpayers. This macabre parade of aging inmates on death row has lead to 30 being there for more than 30 years, 119 for more than 20 years, and 240 for more than 15 years. Clearly it does not seem that justice is "swift." In some cases all the interested parties in the case have predeceased the inmate on death row.

Putting aside the cry for vengeance, one is compelled to look at the cost connected with these death row cases. California is facing a financial crises, and the costs associated with death penalty cases has to be closely reviewed because it has been said the these 714 cases are depriving our school children of needed educational services, closing state parks, reducing law enforcement (outside prisons), and generally negatively affecting the quality of life of every other Californian.

Since 1985 the costs of automatic appeals has past $925 million. In 2009, the legislatively required Habeas Corpus Resource Center budget was over $13 million. The Attorney General's office estimates their costs in 2009 to be $417.8 million. When totaled, the annual total post-conviction litigation costs California taxpayers roughly $58.5 million dollars.

The annual cost of housing a death row inmate is over $90,000 a year, almost double what it costs to maintain other prisoners, or some $300 million each year before the inmate, as currently operating, dies of old age or suicide. Governor Brown wisely cancelled the money that had been allocated for the construction of a new death row at San Quentin, which ultimately would have cost taxpayers over $1 billion dollars to be fully operating and putting to death an inmate every two or three years. Not a very good investment for the taxpayer.

While some argue that "sitting" on death row is not the "luxury" enjoyed by the victim of the crime that was committed, a word or two about the "luxury" of being on death row (at $90,000 a year). I have had the opportunity over 15 years to visit every one of California's 33 state prisons while working for a nonprofit organization. I have been in death row this year and can only describe it as a madhouse, five stories high, with a constant rumble of the yelling and cursing that goes on 24/7, the banging of metal doors, and an occasional "kite" (message) dropping from tier to another. As you walk the length of each tier you pass the cells, which are about 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. Inside, usually on a bunk bed with a thin mattress, sits or lies the inmate, reading or watching the limited TV inmates are allowed. The comode sits at the foot of the bed. It is dark and has a very distinct smell, one that gets to you quickly. Unseen, but clearly there, is the aura or energy of something really grotesque. It is clearly a relief to breath in the clean air when you leave -- and I had been there only 15 minutes!

If California were to eliminate the death penalty these monumental expenses would quickly disappear, and all those on death row would be automatically have their sentences modified to "life without parole." There would be no get out of jail free cards, no repitious court appearances or special deals. Most likely the inmates would be housed in a facility such as Pelican Bay in Cresent City, where inmates are in locked down cells 23 hours a day, where they see very few human beings, have constant light, and are escorted by two staff everywhere. Lots of time to think about what they have done to someone weaker than them, instead of trying to figure out the next legal move in fighting the needle.

As one who has committed (positive sense) to working to improve the lives of families and victims of the incarcerated, whether on Death Row or at a Level 1 fire conservation camp (4,000 inmates serve as Cal Fire trustees), I do not see much rationale for continuing with the current death penalty as it is today in California.

It is costly, it represents a disproportionate racial portion of California's population, and, quite frankly, does not bring closure to any victim's relatives. If anything, the long legal process keeps the wound open and festering, with no certainty of any resolution. For those with an axe to grind, or quoting the Bible's "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," it seems a little much when you support taking a life rather that a tooth.

As a deterrent, the death penalty in California simply does not work. The average Californian probably only remembers the names of three death row inmates at the best. Most crimes where a death penalty has been handed down are either crimes of passion, or those that have been carefully plotted out, with little thought that, "If I kill him, I might be on death row." 

One final word about the death penalty and prison. For all the many times that I have been in one of California's prisons, even the new ones, I can truthfully say that I always breath a sign of relief when that gate slams behind me, and I'm a free person, breathing the fresh air. That said, I, for one, could never exist on the prison side of life and to look at a sentence where I knew that some day I would die without ever seeing a clear sky would be too much for me. That is why I believe that the "life without parole" would be a much more effective deterrent because the thought of rotting away for years behind concrete walls and razor wire is almost worse that a lethal injection that peacefully ends all my anxieties.