"California death penalty foes to try for ballot initiative," is the title of By Carol J. Williams' report in today's Los Angeles Times.
Abolitionists have gained momentum in their campaign to ask California voters to replace the death penalty with lifelong imprisonment, winning over influential prosecutors, police chiefs and other law enforcement leaders who have turned against the ultimate punishment as a failure on all fronts.
But one key forum has yet to join the battle against spending billions on a dysfunctional death row: the California Legislature. On Thursday, backers of a bill that would ask voters to renounce capital punishment withdrew the legislation when it became apparent it was stalled.
Taxpayers for Justice, a coalition of death penalty foes galvanized by the spiraling costs of keeping execution as a sentencing option, immediately announced a citizens initiative aimed for the November 2012 ballot.
Civil rights groups have been attempting to call attention to the costs of the death penalty for years. That message gained traction in June with the release of a comprehensive study by a federal judge and a law professor showing that taxpayers have spent $4 billion over the last three decades to carry out only 13 executions.
The authors, U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell, testified before the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week that the death penalty has become "a multibillion-dollar debacle."
And:
Gov. Jerry Brown in April scrapped plans to build a new $356-million death row, saying scarce budget funds were better spent on children and the elderly than on prisoners.
Sensing opportunity to erode support for capital punishment with the fiscal argument, Taxpayers for Justice conscripted more than 100 law enforcement leaders in their campaign for replacement of death sentences with life without the possibility of parole. While a few counties already have renounced capital prosecutions for ethical or expense reasons, a statewide initiative would need to be passed by voters for the death penalty to be eliminated as an option.
The AP report is, "Calif. death penalty bill stalls until next year," by Don Thompson. It's via the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said she agreed to turn her SB490 into a two-year bill when she realized she didn't have the nine votes she needed to get her bill out of the 17-member Assembly Appropriations Committee to a vote by the full Assembly.
"This is going to be a process. This is a tough vote for a lot of people," Hancock said in a telephone interview. "The issue is not going away. There have been people across the state who are rallying to support it."
She said she and other proponents will keep lobbying lawmakers to approve the bill when it comes up again next year.
Hancock based her legislation in part on a recent study that found California has spent $184 million a year on death penalty cases and incarceration, yet puts to death relatively few condemned inmates.
The 714 prisoners on the nation's most populous death row are more likely to die of old age.
Thursday's delay came as Gov. Jerry Brown voiced support for putting "deep, troublesome issues" like capital punishment to a vote of the people, as Hancock's bill proposes.
And:
A coalition of death penalty opponents calling itself California Taxpayers For Justice said it hopes to bypass the Legislature by gathering enough signatures to put the issue on the November 2012 ballot. Spokeswoman Erin Mellon said more details would be released Monday, including who is behind the coalition that she said includes law enforcement officials, victims and survivors who oppose capital punishment, and those wrongfully convicted of capital crimes.
"Bill to kill California's death penalty shelved in committee," by Jim Sanders in the Sacramento Bee.
Legislation seeking to eliminate the death penalty was shelved Thursday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Senate Bill 490 would have placed before voters in November 2012 a measure to close death row and replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.
Sen. Loni Hancock, a Berkeley Democrat who proposed the measure, said she withdrew SB 490 from consideration after its fate became clear.
"The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement. "I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and fund essential public institutions like the courts," she said.
Gov. Jerry Brown, before the bill was shelved, suggested that he might support placing the death penalty before voters.
Brown declined to discuss SB 490, but said that in general, "When we have deep, troublesome issues that create gridlock in the Legislature, going back to the people can be a way to break the gridlock."
California Taxpayers For Justice, opposed to the death penalty, vowed Thursday to launch a ballot initiative that would place a ban before voters in November 2012.
"Proposal to repeal death penalty lacks support," is by Marisa Lagos for the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement Thursday. "I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and fund essential public institutions like the courts. Study after study has demonstrated that the cost of maintaining the death penalty when so many basic needs are going unmet has become an expense we can no longer afford."
California Taxpayers for Justice issued the news release, "Statement Announcing Ballot Initiative to Replace California’s Death Penalty in 2012."
“Today we learned that SB 490, a bill by Senator Loni Hancock to give California voters the opportunity to vote on replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole, will stay in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
We have ample evidence that California’s death penalty system is dysfunctional and costly. The death penalty costs California taxpayers approximately $170 million a year while a shocking 46% of homicides and 56% of rapes go unsolved every year in our state. The $4 billion that we’ve spent on 13 executions since 1978 would have been better spent on law enforcement to solve murders and get more criminals off our streets, and on funding for our children’s schools.
California’s broken system also risks executing innocent people for crimes they did not commit. Over 100 people across the country have been wrongly sentenced to death, and some have been executed.
If the California legislature will not act to put an end to California’s death penalty debacle, and to keep California families safe, then we will. We will take immediate steps to file a ballot initiative for the November 2012 general election.”
Additional information about our campaign committee, proposal and the campaign timeline will be presented at a press conference on Monday at 10 a.m. in Sacramento. Additional details are forthcoming.
Earlier coverage of SB 490 and California capital punishment costs begins at the link. Related posts are in the cost index.
The Alarcon-Mitchell law review article, "Executing the Will of the Voters: A Roadmap to Mend or End the California Legislature's Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle," is available in Adobe .pdf format.
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