Sept. 30
CALIFORNIA:
Voters to determine fate of death penalty again
The death penalty is once again on trial in California.
Voters go to the polls Nov. 6 to confront a question of conscience and cost:
Should they repeal capital punishment and replace it with a sentence of life in
prison without the possibility of parole?
Supporters of Proposition 34 say the answer must be yes, given the cost, moral
misgivings, dragged out appeals and the risk of putting an innocent person to
death.
Opponents urge a no vote, arguing that victims and families deserve finality,
the process could be speeded up with some political will and that criminals
would have little to lose if they pull the trigger with no risk of being
executed.
If passed, the law would make California the 18th state in the nation to
eliminate capital punishment.
In doing so, the state could save as much as $184 million a year in extra court
and security costs by shutting down death row and ending the lengthy appeals
process, supporters say.
Part of those savings, about $100 million over 4 years, would be directed to
local authorities to concentrate on homicide and rape investigations, under the
initiative.
But it's not just about the money. For many, it comes down to their deeply
personal views of justice.
"All life is sacred, but that doesn't mean we don't remove that person from
society, that we don't ensure they are never able to harm again," said the Rev.
Beth Johnson, of the Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church in Vista.
"Life without the possibility of parole is an acceptable, reasonable, fair and
just alternative."
Counters Bonnie Dumanis, San Diego County's district attorney: "When police are
murdered, when serial killers commit their crimes and children are raped and
tortured, a jury that convicts those criminals should have the option of
imposing the ultimate price."
Statistics show that inmates are more likely to die of natural causes before
being put to death. California has executed just 14 out of about 900 sentenced
to death since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978.
Of the 98 death row inmates who have died since 1978, 57 were of natural
causes. More committed suicide - 21 - than were executed. San Diego County has
sent 40 prisoners to death row, the 4th highest county.
"It's a failed public policy that serves no one," says former San Quentin
Warden Jeanne Woodford.
The wait on death row averages slightly more than 17 years. Clarence Ray Allen
was the last inmate to be executed, put to death Jan. 17, 2006 - 23 years after
conviction.
Some of the most notorious criminals are still waiting for their last meal.
Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered Petaluma youngster Polly Klaas,
was convicted 16 years ago. Richard Ramirez, the serial killer dubbed the
"Night Stalker" who terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid-1980s, was
sentenced in 1989.
San Diego County is and has been well represented on death row. It took the
state 14 years to execute Robert Alton Harris, who killed 2 Mira Mesa teenagers
in 1978. He was the 1st to go to the gas chamber - which is no longer used -
after voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978.
Among those waiting a final date are brothers Hector and Ronaldo Ayala,
convicted in 1989 for killing 3 people in a Logan Heights automotive repair
shop; Richard Samayoa, sentenced in 1988 for bludgeoning a neighbor and her
toddler daughter in south San Diego; and Rudolph Roybal, found guilty in 1992
of murdering an Oceanside woman.
(Hector Ayala in August won a reprieve when a federal appellate court ruled 2-1
that his constitutional rights were violated. That decision is under appeal and
he remains behind bars.)
"Life without parole is swift and certain justice," says Catherine Thiemann,
the San Diego chair of the Proposition 34 campaign. "The death penalty isn't
justice. It's vengeance."
But opponents say true justice is execution given the nature of the crime. And
that can be accomplished if the state would invest in the system with more
counsel and clearing legal roadblocks.
"It can be fixed if the political will is there," said Steve Wagstaffe, San
Mateo County District Attorney.
Modern-day California has long struggled with capital punishment, but for the
most part voters have backed the ultimate penalty for murder. In the last up
and down vote, Californians in 1978 overwhelmingly supported reinstating the
death penalty after the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional,
converting more than 100 sentences to life in prison.
In another telling sign of voter mood, Californians voters tossed out state
Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird in 1986, primarily because she voted to
overturn every 1 of more than 60 death penalty appeals before her court.
Dumanis, the county's district attorney, sides with those who say the death
penalty law needs fixed, not abandoned.
She backs a plan advanced by retired Chief Justice Ron George that would
eliminate the automatic review by the state Supreme Court. George proposes
giving justices the option of hearing an appeal or sending the case on to the
federal courts - a legally required step that can chew up years and millions of
dollars. There is also a shortage of defense attorneys qualified to argue
capital cases, he has said.
Dumanis blamed much of the cost and delay on those who oppose the death
penalty, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which has lobbied for
prisoner rights, including extensive appeals and specialized counsel.
"It takes too long and costs too much because the people behind the initiative
are the ones who have made it so," Dumanis said.
Dumanis said she is very judicious, saving her capital case filings for "the
worst of the worst" and only after talking to families of the victims. She said
she does not use it as a bargaining chip to elicit guilty pleas to lower
charges.
In one of the county's most notorious cases, Dumanis is convinced that John
Albert Gardner led police to the body of Amber Dubois, and agreed in 2009 to
guilty pleas in her killing and that of Chelsea King, because he feared
execution.
"We never made an offer to them. They came to us," Dumanis said.
Rev. Johnson is one of those whose faith teaches a different approach when it
comes to punishing such a "heinous" crime.
"Morally, society is impoverished and diminished when the state performs the
same act as a killer," said Johnson.
Johnson said she is also swayed by data that suggests death sentences are
handed down to a disproportionate number of minorities, raising questions of
fairness.
"That, in of itself, is a reason to abolish it," she said.
Her message to those families who want to see the killer of a loved one
executed?
"I would say I can understand the tremendous pain and suffering you and your
family are experiencing ... And so while it is tremendous pain you are feeling,
there is not act that will ever restore the loss you have experienced," she
said.
One of those is Don Nelson of the San Bernardino area. His mother was murdered
by Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, who still sits on death row
nearly a quarter century after his crimes.
"I am strongly for the death penalty. It is a deterrent when it is used
effectively," Nelson said. "We delay it so long we create expenses and road
blocks."
But Nelson added that the state must act cautiously given the stakes. "I am not
saying there should be a rush to execution," Nelson said, adding the process
could be expedited if more attorneys and judges were committed to capital
cases.
Ron Cottingham, a longtime officer with the San Diego County sheriff's
department, speaks from first hand experience when he argues for the death
penalty. He is convinced a criminal didn't pull the trigger during a
confrontation because of a fear of going to death row.
"I am here today because a crook decided not to kill me," said Cottingham, who
is now president of the Police Officers Research Council, a lobbying arm for
law enforcement,
The latest Field Poll in late September found voters narrowly oppose the
initiative 45 % to 42 %, with 13 % undecided.
(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
