California to hold vote on abolition of death penalty

Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5:24PM BST 24 Apr 2012 | Nick Allen

[Olog-hai]

California is to hold a referendum on whether to abolish the death penalty and spare the lives of 723 death row inmates, nearly one quarter of all those facing execution in America.

The vote will take place alongside political elections in November after more than 500,000 people in the state signed a petition asking for the issue to be added to the ballot.

California is the state with the highest number of prisoners awaiting execution, and its San Quentin prison houses the largest death row facility in the US.

Under the proposal being voted on, those currently sentenced to death would have their terms commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. They would have to get jobs in jail with their wages going to victims.

It would make California the 18^th state not to have capital punishment. …

The issue will be fiercely debated in California where a poll last year put support for the death penalty in serious cases at 68 percent.

However, the state has not put anyone to death since 2006 when a judge halted executions until a new death chamber was built and lethal injection procedures improved.

Since 1976 the state has executed a total of 13 people. In the same time Texas carried out 481 executions.

Supporters of repealing the death penalty are arguing their case primarily on cost grounds. They claim it would save the state tens of millions of dollars a year that is spent on maintaining death row and paying for lawyers involved in decade long appeals.

The measure is being sponsored by Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin who is now an anti-death penalty advocate. …

[newzjunkey]

If SEVEN is “a “few years. Time flies.

[newzjunkey]

How about a referendum to speed these things up?

With 723, at a rate of one execution per month, with no additional condemned, it will now take 60 years and 4 months to clear death row.