Posted on 01/01/2006 5:50:48 PM PST by Former Military Chick
SACRAMENTO - California's capital punishment debate -- ignited by the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams -- will likely intensify as the state prepares to carry out death sentences at a pace unseen in more than a generation.
Williams, the quadruple murderer and co-founder of the Crips whose tale of redemption failed to spare his life last month, was the 12th inmate executed in California since voters reinstated capital punishment nearly three decades ago.
In 2006, four inmates could enter the execution chamber, including the state's oldest death row resident, 75-year-old Clarence Ray Allen, according to the state attorney general's office.
Who is next
This month, Allen is scheduled to die by lethal injection for masterminding a 1980 triple homicide in Fresno. He has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison for 23 years.
Also facing likely executions in 2006, according to the attorney general's office:
• Michael Angelo Morales, who arrived on death row in 1983 for the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Lodi. A judge is set Tuesday to schedule an execution date that could be in February or March.
• Mitchell Carlton Sims, who was convicted 20 years ago of murdering a Los Angeles-area pizza deliveryman. Sims will soon file a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Stevie Lamar Fields, convicted in 1979 of the kidnap, rape and murder of a University of Southern California student librarian. A federal appeals court ruled against him this month, but that court may not be done with the case.
Twenty-seven years after Californians voted to reinstate capital punishment, large numbers of death-row inmates are approaching the end of the decades-long appeals process. Since the practice resumed in 1992, only three times has the state executed more than one inmate in a single year.
More than 640 on row
Dane Gillette, capital case coordinator for the state attorney general's office, said he expects to see more executions beginning next year.
"Two to three years from now, it's possible to have a considerable number of cases," he said.
With more than 640 inmates sentenced to execution, California has the largest death row in the nation. About 120 inmates' appeals are pending in federal district court.
Californians have overwhelmingly embraced the idea of justice through capital punishment for the state's most violent criminals.
More than 70 percent of voters approved reinstatement of the death penalty in 1978. And last year, 68 percent of California voters voiced their support of the death penalty, according to the nonpartisan Field Poll.
That number, though significant, was actually down from the 83 percent of Californians who supported capital punishment in 1986.
Another survey, by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, found that 57 percent of residents polled last year believed in the death penalty.
But support dropped to 38 percent when life without parole was offered as an alternative sentence for a first-degree murderer.
The 2004 polling numbers also show that more than a third of voters do not agree that the death penalty has been imposed fairly or free of error.
The doubters and DNA
Among the doubters is Donald Heller, the Sacramento attorney and former federal prosecutor who drafted the state's 1978 death penalty initiative.
Heller, now a defense attorney, said he has grown disturbed over the years at how the law has been applied.
He says the proposition he wrote has been enforced in a way he believes is unfair and discriminates against the poor and people of color.
At least six California inmates sentenced to death were later acquitted of murder charges or had charges overturned and not reinstated, according to San Francisco-based Death Penalty Focus, a grass-roots group seeking to abolish capital punishment.
The introduction of DNA evidence and accounts of innocent inmates on death row -- including the death sentence commutations in Illinois by then-Gov. George Ryan two years ago -- have inevitably influenced attitudes in California, Heller said.
Slow process
Appeals don't begin to move until the California Supreme Court appoints defense lawyers. But with willing and qualified defenders in short supply, that takes about three years on average, and new lawyers usually must be appointed as cases progress from one phase to the next.
Once a defendant is sentenced to death, an automatic appeal process begins in the California Supreme Court. In addition to the appeal, a condemned inmate also has three years to file a new case with the same court, making claims based on new evidence and asserted constitutional violations before or during the trial.
If the state Supreme Court denies all relief, as it almost always does, both cases move to the federal system.
The appeal goes to the U.S. Supreme Court with a request for review.
The constitutional case, known as "habeas corpus," goes to federal district court, then the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, before making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. New cases may be filed as investigators continue to dig for new evidence.
Appeals limit sought
Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, is backing new legislation to limit federal review of inmate appeals. He said "interminable delays" in the appeals process have allowed cases to pile up over the years, delaying justice for victims' families and the courts that imposed the sentences.
The bill has encountered unexpected resistance, however, from the chief justices of the 50 states, who have voted unanimously to oppose it.
"We are concerned with speed and efficiency, but we're also concerned with fairness," said California Chief Justice Ronald George, a former death penalty prosecutor who has done much to expedite death penalty cases in the state court system.
Not only is this horrible for the victim's families the years can cause evidence to get lost, witnesses to disappear or worse die.
Twenty plus years on death row is just far to long.
This really gives me pause though:
The bill has encountered unexpected resistance, however, from the chief justices of the 50 states, who have voted unanimously to oppose it.
"We are concerned with speed and efficiency, but we're also concerned with fairness," said California Chief Justice Ronald George, a former death penalty prosecutor who has done much to expedite death penalty cases in the state court system.
I didn't see the numbers, but last I read there were 20-25 death penalty sentences per year in Cal and two executions every 4-5 years. That's why we have 640 on death row. A 235 year appela process is obsecene and immoral.
Death penalty should be applied liberally. Very liberally.
In the last week, I had heard Scott Peterson's family hired their own private appeals attorney. That should not seem odd except folks on death row do not pay for their own appeals attorneys, they file the indigent status and then wait.
The wait is the fact that the state pays little for the services and those that offer their time are so overwhelmed that they have no room on their plate.
I want a fair system. I demand that the record be checked and done so in a timely manner. That all the T's are crossed etc. But, really what CA is doing is as you put it obscene and immoral .
Thank you for the comment.
I can't remember the last time I heard death peanalty come up in a campaign.
TX executed 19 scumbags last year and has removed over 300 parasites from society in the last 25 years. That is a record to be proud of. With all the murderers in CA I can't believe they worry over 4.
Yup, start doin' one a day and we'll be done in about 21 months.
That's too many. We can't do 4 a day, those executioners would be out of work in weeks...can't have that.
640 people on Death Row. Thats frickin unbelieveable.
Now they are crying that this murderous turd in the wheelchair is old and cant see and should be saved. Well: If they dont start knocking off 2 or 3 a week most of them on death row will die of old age.
January 2001. Record 8 executions set this month in Oklahoma Shortened appeals process, long terms contribute to rate By Kelly Kurt, -- Associated Press News Service Tulsa, Oklahoma – Gary Gibson has officiated at Oklahoma executions more than 20 times. However, never has Mr. Gibson, the warden at the southern Oklahoma prison that houses the state's death chamber, faced a month like January, when seven men and one woman are scheduled to die. "It's a trying situation for everybody," he said. Reforms that have shortened the appeals process and the fact that five of the condemned inmates have been on death row for more than 11 years contribute to the surge. The twice-a-week executions have caused little stir among a public supportive of the death penalty that even Gov. Frank Keating, a Roman Catholic, once called the pope's stance against it wrong. Leading people to their deaths is never easy, and Mr. Gibson said he plans to watch his employees closely for signs of fatigue, anxiety, or profound stress from January's hectic pace.
Good, good!
Things ARE improving in Californicate!
SNIP
In 2006, four inmates could enter the execution chamber, including the state's oldest death row resident, 75-year-old Clarence Ray Allen, according to the state attorney general's office.
Four in one year? That's a slow month in Texas, and way short of what needs to be done!
No, it isn't.
Now 19 a month might be a record to be proud of.
And he was right.
(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.")
Not near enough........
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