Nov. 28
CALIFORNIA:
Condemned men settle down to 'retirement' as San Quentin death row gets
$220m upgrade
A plan by California for a $220 million (118 million) death row makeover
has angered the relatives of its inmates' victims - and none more so than
Marc Klaas.
As far as he is concerned, death cannot come too soon to the man who
snatched his 12-year-old daughter, Polly, from a "slumber party" in 1993,
then raped, tortured and murdered her.
Although an average of 30 murderers each year have been sentenced to die
in California since it resumed the death penalty in 1992, only 10 have
actually made the "dead man's walk" to the execution chamber.
Mr Klaas is infuriated that Polly's killer, Richard Allen Davis, and 627
fellow inmates of San Quentin prison near San Francisco, are to get
expensive new accommodation when the state is reining in other spending.
"This man was sentenced to death for the murder of my innocent little girl
and he should die," Mr Klaas said. "That is what justice has called for.
Dead, he would not be needing a new cell for which I and every other
taxpayer have to pay. We are now coming up to the 11th anniversary of
Polly's murder and Davis is now more or less certain to live longer on
Death Row than he allowed my daughter to live on Earth. That is wrong,
that is not justice."
Mr Klaas is among death-penalty advocates, businesses and taxpayer
organisations which accuse California of "warehousing" condemned killers
for life, instead of getting on with executing them. He wants Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the state governor, to live up to his film image as the
Terminator.
Mr Klaas is frustrated that condemned prisoners delay their executions for
years with long-winded appeals, and says the state does not try hard
enough to force the pace.
Critics claim, with what they say is only a mild exaggeration, that a
Californian is more likely to be killed in a road accident than a Death
Row inmate is to be executed.
As a result, a new wing is needed at San Quentin, which sits like a squat,
pale grey castle above the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The
planned new "condemned inmate complex" would hold 1,408 men, and take 25
years to fill at the current rate. Building is scheduled to start next
year.
Death row is a grim culture, a hierarchy of violent men whose only
remaining capital is their violence. At San Quentin, the most violent
inmates are kept in isolation in the "adjustment centre", with food and
books passed through a slot in a steel door.
An inmate's usual tenure on California's Death Row is 20 years, twice the
average of death rows nationally, and is expected to lengthen. The last
execution was in 2002.
Dane Gillette, the senior assistant attorney general for California in
charge of death penalty cases, said: "The process takes longer than it
needs to. Half the average of 20 years would be sufficient, and I think
they could be done in 5 to 7 years."
Dianne Clements, who founded Justice for All to press for death sentences
to be carried out after her 13-year-old son was shot dead in 1993, blamed
"activist judges" for "impeding the will of the people". Polls have found
64 % of Californians in favour of the death penalty. "Just from the moral
standpoint, the failure to carry out the sentences is abhorrent, and now
they have to bankrupt us too," she said.
Business organisations in Marin County, where San Quentin is situated,
have led the protests, demanding a "stay" of the building project from Mr
Schwarzenegger.
Earlier this year he was accused by victims' rights groups of being "more
liberator than terminator", after approving parole for 51 murderers.
Mr Schwarzenegger reversed a further 88 parole board recommendations for
freedom, however, because he did not consider that the killers and other
violent criminals concerned had genuinely reformed.
A spokesman for Mr Schwarzenegger said that he had "taken note" of the
protests, but would make no comment. The building plan was to remain on
schedule.
Estate agents have their eye on the potential for the San Quentin site as
something a little more glitzy: Marin County is one of the most expensive
residential areas in the world, and the damp and crumbling prison sits on
"prime real estate".
Critics of the San Quentin plan suggest selling the site for an estimated
$750 million (403 million) and using the money to build a new jail more
cheaply elsewhere.
Edward Segal, the vice-president of the Marin County Association of
Realtors, said: "They are talking about building America's most expensive
waiting room."
The prisoners have helped to foster the sense of San Quentin as a
long-term warehouse. When the prison recently organised a tour for
journalists, inmates told them that they expected to be there for life -
unless they were freed on appeal. "This is my retirement plan," said
Richard Wade Farley, who shot and killed 7 people in 1988.
Such remarks confirm Mr Klaas's worst fears. "The justice system is a lie:
get death, and you get life, get life and you are back on the street in 20
years, killing, robbing and raping again. It is better to warehouse them
for ever than to let them go, but where is the justice for the victims in
that?"
(source: News-Telgegraph)
