samey-same RATS and the IWR... of course we voted for it, but we really didn't intend for you to use it!!!
Posted on 11/09/2004 10:55:36 AM PST by calcowgirl
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. – Just the other day, Marc Klaas received a letter explaining the latest delay in executing the man responsible for his 12-year-old daughter Polly Klaas' brutal 1993 kidnap and murder, a case that shocked California.
Such letters are commonplace in California. The state has condemned 629 criminals to die since the California legislature re-enacted the death penalty in 1977, but it very rarely metes out society's ultimate punishment. In fact, the state has only put 10 people to death since resuming executions in 1992.
"We've passed the 11th anniversary of my daughter's murder, we have passed the eighth anniversary of the day he was sentenced to die, yet his appeal has not even been done; it has not even been filed," Klaas said angrily in an interview. "The character pretty much guaranteed that he would live longer on death row than my daughter was given to live on this earth."
So steadily are death row ranks swelling in the nation's most populous state that California is planning a controversial $220 million expansion of its only prison for the condemned at San Quentin north of San Francisco.
Richard Allen Davis, Polly Klaas' killer, is housed in the area of San Quentin designated for its most brutal murderers, awaiting the conclusion of appeals that go through the California Supreme Court and federal courts.
Even inside the prison, where crimes against children are seen as especially loathsome, some inmates feel that the state is not moving quickly enough against Davis, officials said.
"Any inmate that gets a chance will try to kill him," Lt. Michael Barker, who runs the most-violent inmate area, said during only the second visit by journalists in 36 years.
Also hated because he helped prompt California to toughen sentences for repeat offenders, Davis was attacked by an arriving inmate a year and a half ago, Barker said.
DECADES AWAITING DEATH
Past history suggests it could be another decade or more before the death penalty truly threatens Davis. "It's not unusual for a man to be in here 20 years before an execution sentence is carried out," said San Quentin warden Jill Brown.
The last man executed, Stephen Wayne Anderson, had been on death row for 20 years before his 2002 death. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the average time nationwide between sentencing and execution from 1977 to 2002 was just over 10 years with a total of 820 prisoners executed.
"The reason that it takes so long (in California) is that as a society we've made the correct choice. If we're going to kill somebody, we better be goddamn sure that the person actually did it and that he received a fair trial," said Steve Fama at the Prison Law Office which represents inmates.
Some of California's most notorious murderers are not on death row. Charles Manson and Robert Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan saw their death sentences commuted to life in prison after court decisions cleared death row in the 1970s.
Several inmates interviewed at San Quentin, which opened in 1852, said they hoped their sentences too would be overturned.
"Maybe I'll get a new trial and get out of here," said one prisoner who has been on death row since 1989.
James Robinson, who has been on death row more than a decade, said the accused with money such as O.J. Simpson or Scott Peterson – now on trial on double-murder charges – stood a much better chance to avoid death than the poor.
"If you're not poor, you're pretty much going to be getting out," he said, speaking from behind bars.
State officials say lawyers are reluctant to take on death penalty appeals cases which slows the process, perhaps deliberately so because some oppose the death penalty. Overall, however, Californians support capital punishment with a Field poll in March finding 68 percent in favor and 26 percent against.
Dane Gillette, a senior assistant California attorney general who oversees death penalty cases, cited the many levels of judicial review and the slowness of the courts.
"I think the process takes longer than it needs to," he said. "It is probably averaging about 20 years in California. I would think that half that would be more than sufficient and I actually think they could be done in five to seven years."
Unlike in some other states, no one ever condemned to death row in the state's history was ever shown later to be innocent of the crime, he said.
EXPENSIVE WAITING ROOM?
With death row growing by about 30 new prisoners a year, San Quentin officials held a public meeting last week to hear sometimes angry community reaction to their plans to build a new death row for 1,408 inmates next to the existing prison.
"So few people are executed at San Quentin that we will be building one of the most expensive waiting rooms in the United States," said Jack Wilkinson, past president of the Marin Association of Realtors. "Indeed, people have a greater chance of being killed on the highway than they do at San Quentin."
Others expressed concern about everything from the impact on traffic to the possibility a new fence would electrocute birds at the scenic location alongside the San Francisco Bay.
With so many complaints, few are fully satisfied over how California handles its death row cases. Family members of the victims are particularly angry.
"They're offered far too much consideration already," said Marc Klaas. "If I had my way I'd just stack these punks like cord wood and be done with it."
JUST KILL THEM...dang
Solution: Electric Bleachers
I find it puzzling that California Democrats are quick to execute children and old people, but slow to execute murderers, predators, and thugs.
I guess they need the votes.
dung.
Yes, I think you got it EXACTLY right.
Texas has executed 20 so far this year. It will be 21 in about 5 hours from now.
At the rate the Gub is pardoning folks, Death Row will be empty by his second term and we won't have to worry about overcrowding at San Quentin and building a new facility..
(/sarc
Note to self: Celebrate 80th birthday with killing spree.
It is amazing. These people, on the outside, lead very unhealthy lives. They drink, do drugs, screw around and flip off members of rival gangs. I would guess being on death row actually increases their life expectancy by several years.
I'd rather see them do hard labor for the rest of their life than to die. It would be cheaper and it would be more cruel for the criminal. Death is too good for most of these animals.
Kill them already!
Hell, I'll do it and I don't even want to get paid for it! Free executions from StoneColdGOP!
We're about to fry one in NC soon, too. I don't see how these people can live with themselves letting these piles of pig dung live as long as they do. I cannot imagine (and hope I NEVER have to) what Polly Klaas' family has had to endure and continues to endure.
I have zero sympathy for the Bay Area whiners because the vast majority of them vote over and over again for anti-death penalty politicians. Note the primary concern for some of them, which I underlined. These are precisely the people who have made it all but impossible to execute anyone here in California.
>>>At the rate the Gub is pardoning folks, Death Row will be empty by his second term and we won't have to worry about overcrowding at San Quentin and building a new facility..
LOL. Not quite... but a significant decrease in prison population:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1247935/posts
CA: Easing up on killers (The Pardonator)
LA Daily News ^ | 10/17/04 | David M. Drucker
Posted on 10/17/2004 9:44:14 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- Reversing Gov. Gray Davis' near zero-tolerance policy against paroling convicted murderers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proven to be 50 times more likely to give second chances to killers. Democrat Davis, in his five years in office, blocked all but six parole recommendations for killers and kidnappers, with two of the recommendations involving the same inmate. Republican Schwarzenegger, in office less than 12 months, has approved 60 parole recommendations from the state Board of Prison Terms for convicts guilty of the most serious crimes.
Ron White comedian from Texas:
" In Texas we have a new law that if you kill two or more people, you get one appeal to the state Supreme Court, thats it.
Some states have stopped executing people,
in Texas we put in an express lane...."
While it's especially bad here in CA, this is common throughout the nation. Criminals on death row have unfettered access to the courts through their lawyers and will file appeal after appeal after appeal. It's a neverending flow of meaningless paperwork that all must be carefully scrutinized for months on end for each filing - all of it designed to slow down the system - and it's working. There needs to be some serious reform.
Express lane!
Cut their total number of appeals to one and then let justice be done in a speedy manner.
The Constitution enjoins against Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Yet Marc Klaas has been suffering for 12 years. Put the poor man out of his misery: execute the beast who killed his daughter.
It's swell to be on death row in California. None of the pansies will really kill a criminal.
samey-same RATS and the IWR... of course we voted for it, but we really didn't intend for you to use it!!!
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