California death penalty ban qualifies to be voter initiative placed on November ballot

A police officer watches over a fence at the entrance of San Quentin State Prison during a protest against the execution of death row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams in San Quentin, Calif., Dec. 12, 2005. / AFP/Getty Images

(AP) SAN FRANCISCO - A measure to abolish California's death penalty qualified for the November ballot on Monday.

If it passes, the 725 California inmates now on Death Row will have their sentences converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It would also make life without parole the harshest penalty prosecutors can seek.

Backers of the measure say abolishing the death penalty will save the state millions of dollars through layoffs of prosecutors and defense attorneys who handle death penalty cases, as well as savings from not having to maintain the nation's largest death row at San Quentin prison.

Those savings, supporters argue, can be used to help unsolved crimes. If the measure passes, $100 million in purported savings from abolishing the death penalty would be used over three years to investigate unsolved murders and rapes.

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The measure is dubbed the "Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act," also known as the SAFE California Act. It's the fifth measure to qualify for the November ballot, the California secretary of state announced Monday. Supporters collected more than the 504,760 valid signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot.

"Our system is broken, expensive and it always will carry the grave risk of a mistake," said Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin who is now an anti-death penalty advocate and an official supporter of the measure.

The measure will also require most inmates sentenced to life without parole to find jobs within prisons. Most death row inmates do not hold prison jobs for security reasons.

Though California is one of 35 states that authorize the death penalty, the state hasn't put anyone to death since 2006. A federal judge that year halted executions until prison officials built a new death chamber at San Quentin Prison, developed new lethal injection protocols and made other improvements to delivering the lethal three-drug combination.

A separate state lawsuit is challenging the way the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation developed the new protocols. A judge in Marin County earlier this year ordered the CDCR to redraft its lethal injection protocols, further delaying executions.

Since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, the state has executed 13 inmates. A 2009 study conducted by a senior federal judge and law school professor concluded that the state was spending about $184 million a year to maintain Death Row and the death penalty system.

Supporters of the proposition, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, are portraying it as a cost-savings measure in a time of political austerity. They count several prominent conservatives and prosecutors — including the author of the 1978 measure adopting the death penalty — as supporters and argue that too few executions have been carried out at too great a cost.

"My conclusion is that he law is totally ineffective," said Gil Garcetti, a former Los Angeles county district attorney. "Most inmates are going to die of natural causes, not executions."

Garcetti, who served as district attorney from 1992 to 2000, said he changed his mind after publication of the 2009 study, which was published by Judge Arthur Alarcon of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and law professor Paula Mitchell.

Opponents of the measure, such as former Sacramento U.S Attorney McGregor Scott, argue that lawyers filing "frivolous appeals" are the problem, not the death penalty law.

"On behalf of crime victims and their loved ones who have suffered at the hands of California's most violent criminals, we are disappointed that the ACLU and their allies would seek to score political points in their continued efforts to override the will of the people and repeal the death penalty," said Scott, who is chairman of the Californians for Justice and Public Safety, a coalition of law enforcement officials, crime victims and others formed to oppose the measure.

The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, meanwhile, remains one the biggest backers of the death penalty in the state and opposes the latest attempt to abolish it in California. The foundation and its supports argue that federal judges are gumming up the process with endless delays and reversals of state Supreme Court rulings upholding individual death sentences.

The foundation on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking the immediate resumption of executions in California. The foundation's lawsuit, filed directly with the state Court of Appeal, argues that since the three-drug method has been the subject of so much litigation — and the source of the execution delays — a one-drug method of lethal injection like Ohio uses can be substituted immediately.

[REDDHOG]

The Laws governing the initiative process in California need checked on this Initiative. Signature verification process, Did the Secretary of State conduct a random sampling of registered voters who signed it? What was the results of the sample? 800,000 signatures of registered voters? Did any one consider signature fraud? Are we to assume this ballot initiative met the requirements under California Law? Death Penalty Repeal is to important of issue not to check the process.

[taxed01]

Death penalty not ok in CA. Rape, murder and mass killings still OK in CA. I guess it makes sense to somebody.

[ge556]

Clearly, you are confused about what is OK.

[arkajun-2009]

The death row inmates in Kalifornia should feel proud and honored to serve. First of all, with the liberal mind set, liberal judges, and the ACLU, it is extremely hard to even get put in prison in Kalifornia. And once there, they get rewarded with free room and board, free clothing, free education, free legal services, free computers, internet access, tv's, exercise equipment, telephone, free medical care to name a few perks. And if you are lucky enough to remain incarcerated after they empty the jails for over-crowding, the odds of actually being executed are in the inmates favor. With 723 souls on death row in 2012, only 13 executions in the last 36 years, and none since 2006, the odds of being executed in a Kalifornia prison are probably less than being run over by a truck on a Kalifornia highway.

[Havoc70]

I say strap them in and throw the switch.

[1American]

PW If the death penalty was applied to MORONS as you suggested, YOU would be first in line.

[betterusa]

It amazes me how many people believe the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. If not, why do these killers continue to fight for their lives and file numerous appeals to stay alive? (Check the story on Marcus Robinson in NC that some liberal judge commutes his sentence.) I realize their attorneys are behind it but not without the killer's endorsement. As for the libs that do not want the possibility of an innocent executed; how about executing the obvious ones declared guilty, the Mansons, the Loughtners, the Fort Hood killer, etc. This scum is guilty and was caught in the act committing their crime so why do we (the taxpayer) continue to keep this dirt alive with the freedom to live, work, eat, go to the doctor, etc? What are their victims doing? Let's endorse immediate execution for the obvious guilty and life without parole for the guilty that were not caught in the act; simple solution and saves more dollars.

[ge556]

How about the "obviously guilty" who are framed by overzealous cops and prosecutors? Check out all the reversed convictions.

[longtree-2009]

obviously the death penalty is not a deterent because violent criminals continue to kill, some are serial killers. however the death penalty should be implemented to execute those who killed their victims depriving them of their life and some of their victims are children. hard to understand how so many come to the aid of those sentenced to death while their victims turn to dust. no one can forgive a killer except for their victims and they have been silenced forever. judges in california are extremely liberal, pro criminal apparently, so california is a good state to commit any and all crimes because if criminals are caught they know the legal system will prevent the justice system from enacting harsh punishment including execution. criminals should move to california, it apparently is a safe state for any kind of criminality.

[smittyc]

Another state where you can murder as many as you want and get free food clothing and shelter and free medical at no charge and no penalty. I can see the cops getting shot like rabbits everytime they pull someone over and the females getting beaten to death by their drunked up drugged up boyfriends and husbands. California had 2000 murders in 2010, and everyone of the perps is debt free, and lives better than the rest of the population. I hope they pass it, it will reduce the liberals and the druggies in the country. They will all murder each other over their drugs.

[pleasechoseanother]

It really makes no sense to spend $60,000 to $70,000 per year for life, but go ahead California.

[Wingsfan1983]

I keep wondering how these prisoners can be forced into hard labor in order not to be a cost to society and enhance a deterrent to crimes that warrant capital punishment?

[smittyc]

Hard labor? The prisoners have computer access and post on these sites and the taxpayors fund it.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

Our nation's definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" is far too liberal/unrealistic. Every prisoner should be forced to do hard labor every day -- the products or services of which should be used to fund their diets, which should consist of basic foods only -- and they shouldn't have TV or Internet access, and shouldn't have AC. They should be kept alive and healthy, but they should wish they were dead.