'Hanging Judge' Challenges California's Death Penalty

SAN QUENTIN (CBS 5) -- When Governor Jerry Brown canceled funding on Thursday for the proposed new death row facility at San Quentin, he said "we cannot justify a massive expenditure of public dollars for the worst criminals in our state," while cutting programs for children, disabled and elderly.

But the death penalty is still costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, the latest challenger to that expenditure comes from an unexpected source.

"I would make Attila the Hun look left wing," said Donald McCartin, who sat on the bench from 1978 to 1993 and was called "The Hanging Judge of Orange County" for sending nine men to death row.

Among them, "Freeway Killer" Randy Kraft, linked to 67 murders. McCartin sentenced him to death in 1989. Also, Rodney Alcala, who was convicted of torturing and killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and four other young women; suspected in the disappearance of dozens more. Alcala been sentenced to death three times, the first time in 1980.

Judge McCartin has been retired nearly two decades, but says he expects to die long before most of the men he sentenced. And that makes him mad.

"Going through the charade," said the judge, "that we were going to give the victim finality by killing the killer ain't true."

Last month McCartin wrote Brown, saying the state has spent "millions of tax dollars in this meaningless and ultimately fruitless pursuit of death" and urging the governor to end the death penalty.

Anti-death penalty groups like Death Penalty Focus welcome the judge to their side. "Many people say that we need the death penalty for justice, and that you can't put a price on justice," said the group's associate director Stefanie Faucher. "But the truth is, you can put a price on the death penalty, and it's extremely expensive."

To house the 713 prisoners on death row costs about $70 million a year. Taxpayers also pick up the tab for both sides of their court appeals -- prosecution and defense -- for an additional $60 million a year.

Death penalty opponents point out that California could save nearly a billion dollars over the next five years by commuting death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole – because it's far cheaper to keep a prisoner than try to kill him. For the 55 percent of condemned currently fighting appeals, it costs taxpayers an additional $175,000 per prisoner per year.

Pro-death penalty advocate Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation said costs are skyrocketing because death penalty opponents have rigged the system, causing delay after delay. Rushford points out the federal court system took just six years to try, convict, and hear appeals before Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed, and California could save money by adopting the same system. "So we focus on guilt and not on procedural issues and not on technicalities," said Rushford.

"I wait! There's nothing I can do!" said Marc Klaas. It's been 18 years since his daughter Polly class was kidnapped and murdered by Richard Allen Davis. Klaas believes the only justice for Davis is to carry out his execution. And he doesn't trust the system to keep killers behind bars for life without parole.

"These are some terrible individuals," said Klaas. "These are individuals we never want to see on the streets again. And the first step towards the possibility of getting them back on the streets is to do away with the death penalty."

It's an emotional issue. Most Californians still support the death penalty according to opinion polls. But the Hanging Judge of Orange County, Donald McCartin, said it's time for Californians to decide between their emotions -- and their wallets.

"You could balance the criminal budget in the state of California if you would eliminate the death penalty."

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