California voters to decide whether to keep death penalty

By Eric Bradley, Staff Writerpresstelegram.com
Posted: 04/23/2012 04:25:49 PM PDT
April 24, 2012 12:4 AM GMTUpdated: 04/23/2012 05:04:21 PM PDT

California voters will decide in November whether to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Supporters of the SAFE California Act told reporters in a conference call on Monday that they had gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot this fall. Later that afternoon, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that she had certified the initiative.

Jeanne Woodford, who oversaw four executions as warden of San Quentin State Prison but now is executive director of anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Focus, called California's 34-year-old death penalty statute a "colossal failure."

"I know about its huge financial costs and have seen firsthand its harms to public safety," said Woodford, also a past director of the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Maintaining California's death row of about 720 inmates costs about $184 million each year in special housing, legal appeals and other resources, Woodford and other backers said.

Additionally, they added, $4 billion has been spent on capital punishment since 1978, when the present law was approved by voters. In that time, 13 prisoners have been executed due in part to a lengthy appeals process.

The initiative, which is supported by the author of the ballot measure that resumed executions, would over three years send $100 million saved from abolishing the law to police agencies to help solve more homicide and rape cases.

On Monday, advocates of the measure couldn't provide an accounting of where the redirected funds would come from, but they said some would be drawn from laying off state attorneys who now work on capital punishment cases.

The measure would also require convicted killers to work in prison and apply their wages to victim restitution, fines or orders against them.

Connecticut Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, who sponsored a bill repealing that state's death penalty that is awaiting the governor's signature, participated in the conference call and urged voters to follow the lead of 17 other states that have abolished executions.

"There are few opportunities in life to vote for safety and justice," Holder-Winfield said. "This is one."

A Field Poll conducted in September 2011 of registered California voters found that 48 percent of respondents favor life in prison without parole as a sentence for first-degree murder, with 40 percent preferring the death penalty.

The results are cited by anti-capital punishment groups as evidence that voters are ready to rescind the law.

However, in the same poll, 68 percent of registered voters supported keeping the death penalty, illustrating the conflict those working both sides of the issue will contend with this year.

Michael Rushford, the founder, president and chief executive officer of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, said in an interview Monday the solution is to fix the law, not get rid of it.

"It doesn't have to take this much time," Rushford said.

The post-conviction appeals process can take as long as 25 years, according to Rushford, and the state can take five years to even assign a lawyer.

"The last time I checked, we're not low on lawyers in California," he quipped.

Rushford said his group may challenge the SAFE Act on constitutional grounds for allegedly violating the "single-subject" rule that says initiatives submitted to voters may have only one subject.

Amending criminal law and appropriating money from the general fund are separate issues, Rushford claimed.

Eric.bradley@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2104, twitter.com/EricBradleyPT

California voters to decide whether to keep death penalty - ContraCostaTimes.com