Death Penalty Redux (a Tom McClintock's column)

Tom McClintock for Lt. Governor ^ | December 15th. 2005 | Tom McClintock

[GOPXtreme20]

Death Penalty Redux

The execution of Tookie Williams has brought new life to efforts to undermine California’s death penalty law. AB 1121, a two-year moratorium on executions introduced by Assemblyman Paul Koretz will be taken up by the state Assembly on January 10, just a week before 75-year-old convicted killer Clarence Ray Allen is sentenced to die.

Koretz argues that the moratorium is necessary to assure that innocent people are not put to death while the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice reviews California’s criminal justice system.

But California’s death penalty review process is already the most rigorous and time-consuming in the world, and no credible evidence has ever suggested that California has put an innocent person to death since the death penalty was restored in 1977. “I know in my heart that innocent people have been executed,” Koretz said when he introduced the moratorium. Fine. Name one.

Besides sparing the lives of convicted killers on death row, what would be the effect of a two-year death penalty moratorium on the lives of innocent citizens on California’s streets? In 1997, Texas declared a one-year moratorium on executions, and it resulted in over 200 additional murders in that state, according to a 1999 University of Houston-Clear Lake study. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2001, lifting it a year later for the same reason.

Indeed, in nations like Great Britain and Australia that have banned the death penalty, public opinion is now running strongly in favor of restoring it – 68 percent in Britain and 57 percent in Australia.

To those who offer “Life in prison without possibility of parole” as an alternative, one again must ask the question, “to what end?” Clarence Ray Allen was sentenced to “life” for a 1974 murder. He was finally condemned to die for arranging three more murders from behind bars in 1980 while serving his “life” sentence. To put it bluntly, three innocent people were needlessly sentenced to death precisely because Clarence Ray Allen wasn’t.

And for Mr. Koretz, their names were Byron Schletewitz, Douglas White and Josephine Rocha.

[ncountylee]

Clarence Ray Allen is entitled to a free ride on the Tookie Express, the gurney to hell.

[FairOpinion]

McClintock PING

[inquest]

“I know in my heart that innocent people have been executed,” Koretz said when he introduced the moratorium. Fine. Name one.

Now there are two words that liberals can't stand.

[peyton randolph]

“I know in my heart that innocent people have been executed,” Koretz said

Oh really? Did he commit some murders and let others take the fall?

[calcowgirl]

PING!!!

McClintock Ping List.
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[calcowgirl]

Death Penalty Moratorium on the Table
	Posted by BurbankKarl On News/Activism 12/14/2005 11:51:08 AM PST · 9 replies · 179+ views LA Times ^ | 12/14/05 | Jordan Rau, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO — State legislators in early January will consider what is likely to be a contentious proposal to postpone executions for as long as three years. On Jan. 10, an Assembly committee plans to consider legislation that would place a moratorium on executions until a special commission finishes examining whether California's criminal justice system allows innocent people to be convicted. The bill, the first of its kind in Sacramento in more than a decade, faces substantial political and legal hurdles. Its hearing — scheduled long before convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams' execution Tuesday — comes as the state is poised...
Lawmakers to Consider Plan to Halt Executions (California)
	Posted by Simmy2.5 On News/Activism 12/13/2005 11:09:39 PM PST · 21 replies · 254+ views LA Times ^ | 9:20 PM PST, December 13, 2005 | By Jordan Rau, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO -- State legislators in early January will consider what is likely to be a contentious proposal to postpone executions for as long as three years. On Jan. 10, an Assembly committee plans to consider legislation that would place a moratorium on executions until a special commission finishes examining whether California's criminal justice system allows innocent people to be convicted. The bill, the first of its kind in Sacramento in more than a decade, faces substantial political and legal hurdles. Its hearing — scheduled long before convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams' execution Tuesday — comes as the state is poised...

[goldstategop]

Tom McClintock makes a very valid point. Life in prison won't keep murderers from trying to kill on the outside through confederates or associates. The best way to keep them from ever committing another murder again is to put them to death swiftly. We've had a 25 year moratorium on the death penalty in California as the result of an expensive and super-slow appeals process. So the last thing we need to have it formally extended. What's needed is to clear out the backlog on Death Row as fast as humanely possible. That alone will cut the murderer rate down in California - when would-be murderers know they face swift justice.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

He can't. All he has are feelings and feelings are more important to liberals than facts.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[tubebender]

Bump...

[kellynla]

BTTT

[Czar]

A two or three year moratorium on executions.

Sounds good. Evidently the existing defacto moratorium of 25 to 30 years is insufficient.

[Brilliant]

Allen killed 3 people AFTER he was sent to prison. He ordered his thugs to kill them.

I just shows what a sham prison is.

[Brilliant]

California has already gone nuts. Repealing the death penalty is only icing on the cake.

[Carry_Okie]

“I know in my heart that innocent people have been executed,” Koretz said when he introduced the moratorium.

You are forgetting that "innocent" in this context doesn't mean that the perp didn't commit the crime, only that a legal means was found, no matter how bizarre, to let him skate.

After all, murderous thugs have been VERY good for business. They employ lawyers, psychologists, prison guards, sheriffs... all sorts of Democrat constituents! That's why our schools, child protection, and juvenile justice systems work so hard to produce more of them.

[b9]

Thank you for the ping.
Don't you love the way he writes and thinks?

To put it bluntly, three innocent people were needlessly sentenced to death precisely because Clarence Ray Allen wasn’t.

[StoneColdGOP]

BTTT for a man that makes sense.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Seadog Bytes]

Thank you!