Unlikely 2 back bill to close state's Death Row
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
San Francisco Chronicle July 8, 2011 04:00 AM
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Sacramento --
California's death penalty could be repealed by voters under a measure that is backed by two unlikely people: the author of the 1978 ballot initiative that greatly expanded the scope of capital crimes and a former San Quentin warden who oversaw four executions.
Both testified Thursday at a legislative hearing on a bill that would ask voters to repeal the death penalty and instead make the maximum penalty life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The sentences of the 714 inmates on Death Row also would be converted to life without parole.
Don Heller, who wrote the 1978 ballot measure that expanded capital punishment, and Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin warden and former director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, pointed to the enormous costs involved in having a death penalty: expensive trials, the lengthy appeals process and other legal requirements. They also questioned whether the sentence actually delivers justice.
Since 1978, California has executed 13 people while 78 inmates have died on Death Row from natural causes, suicide and prison violence.
"It is wasteful and counterproductive to public safety to spend our precious, precious resources pretending we have a death penalty when we know the sentence will not be carried out 99 percent of the time," Woodford said. Woodford now runs a nonprofit that seeks to abolish the death penalty.
Opponents of the measure, represented at the hearing by numerous law enforcement organizations and the victims advocacy group Crime Victims United of California, said cost shouldn't matter when punishing the worst criminals who commit heinous crimes. They also raised concerns about whether sentences would continue to be reduced and said not having a death penalty puts law enforcement officers in particular danger.
Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, said passing the bill "will put a target on the back of my members and every peace officer in California" because criminals will know they will face only "three hots and a cot" for killing an officer.
Opponents also said that the Legislature could take steps to speed up the execution process instead of abolishing the death penalty.
A provision of the bill would halt executions until voters weighed in on the question, which would happen in November 2012 if the measure is passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Cory Salzillo, director of legislation for the California District Attorneys Association, questioned the legality of that clause.
He added, "We can't put a price on justice."
The bill, which passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on a 5-2 party-line vote with Democrats' support, has many more votes to come, though it can pass the full Legislature by a simple majority. It is SB490, introduced by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley.
Brown oversaw the state's arguments against condemned inmates when he was attorney general and during his campaign for governor last year he told The Chronicle, "I think we'd be better off without it. ... I respect the will of the people and I've demonstrated my fidelity to the law. There's no one who has defended as many death penalty convictions as I have."
Elizabeth Ashford, spokeswoman for Brown, said if the bill comes to the governor, "He'll take a close look at it and give it very careful consideration."
In the last Field Poll on the subject in July 2010, 70 percent of Californians surveyed said they favored the use of capital punishment.
Heller, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Sacramento, said he wrote the initiative without any discussions with the Legislature or outside vetting of his language and that the cost estimates for it at the time "were grossly below what it ended up costing."
He said the 13 executions have cost California $330 million each.
The bill will next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee sometime in mid-August.
Executions have been on hold in California since February 2006 because of a court-imposed moratorium over concerns that the lethal injection procedure constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The matter is not scheduled to be considered by a court until at least next year.
California's death penalty could be repealed by voters under a measure that is backed by two unlikely people: the author of the 1978 ballot initiative that greatly expanded the scope of capital crimes and a former San Quentin warden who oversaw four executions.
Both testified Thursday at a legislative hearing on a bill that would ask voters to repeal the death penalty and instead make the maximum penalty life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The sentences of the 714 inmates on Death Row also would be converted to life without parole.
Don Heller, who wrote the 1978 ballot measure that expanded capital punishment, and Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin warden and former director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, pointed to the enormous costs involved in having a death penalty: expensive trials, the lengthy appeals process and other legal requirements. They also questioned whether the sentence actually delivers justice.
Since 1978, California has executed 13 people while 78 inmates have died on Death Row from natural causes, suicide and prison violence.
"It is wasteful and counterproductive to public safety to spend our precious, precious resources pretending we have a death penalty when we know the sentence will not be carried out 99 percent of the time," Woodford said. Woodford now runs a nonprofit that seeks to abolish the death penalty.
Expensive law
A report recently published in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review determined that just over $4 billion in state and federal funds has been spent to administer the death penalty in California and that in 2009 it cost taxpayers $184 million more to have the death penalty than it would have not to have it.Opponents of the measure, represented at the hearing by numerous law enforcement organizations and the victims advocacy group Crime Victims United of California, said cost shouldn't matter when punishing the worst criminals who commit heinous crimes. They also raised concerns about whether sentences would continue to be reduced and said not having a death penalty puts law enforcement officers in particular danger.
Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, said passing the bill "will put a target on the back of my members and every peace officer in California" because criminals will know they will face only "three hots and a cot" for killing an officer.
Opponents also said that the Legislature could take steps to speed up the execution process instead of abolishing the death penalty.
A provision of the bill would halt executions until voters weighed in on the question, which would happen in November 2012 if the measure is passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Cory Salzillo, director of legislation for the California District Attorneys Association, questioned the legality of that clause.
He added, "We can't put a price on justice."
The bill, which passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on a 5-2 party-line vote with Democrats' support, has many more votes to come, though it can pass the full Legislature by a simple majority. It is SB490, introduced by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley.
Complex history
If it passes, the measure would go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has a complex history with the death penalty. Brown strongly opposed it when he was younger and vetoed a bill from the Legislature to implement it in 1977. That veto was overridden and the number of crimes punished with death was expanded in the Heller ballot measure the next year.Brown oversaw the state's arguments against condemned inmates when he was attorney general and during his campaign for governor last year he told The Chronicle, "I think we'd be better off without it. ... I respect the will of the people and I've demonstrated my fidelity to the law. There's no one who has defended as many death penalty convictions as I have."
Elizabeth Ashford, spokeswoman for Brown, said if the bill comes to the governor, "He'll take a close look at it and give it very careful consideration."
In the last Field Poll on the subject in July 2010, 70 percent of Californians surveyed said they favored the use of capital punishment.
Change of heart
At Thursday's hearing, another person with a long and complex history on the death penalty - Heller - said he now "fervently" believes capital punishment should be abolished.Heller, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Sacramento, said he wrote the initiative without any discussions with the Legislature or outside vetting of his language and that the cost estimates for it at the time "were grossly below what it ended up costing."
He said the 13 executions have cost California $330 million each.
The bill will next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee sometime in mid-August.
Executions have been on hold in California since February 2006 because of a court-imposed moratorium over concerns that the lethal injection procedure constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The matter is not scheduled to be considered by a court until at least next year.
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