Posted on 07/17/2011 9:59:28 PM PDT by SmithL
State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, is pushing legislation to end California's death penalty. "Capital punishment is an expensive failure and an example of the dysfunction of our prisons," she explained in a statement. "California's Death Row is the largest and most costly in the United States. It is not helping to protect our state; it is helping to bankrupt us."
You have to hand this to death-penalty opponents: For decades, capital punishment opponents have tried to thwart California's 1978 death-penalty law with frivolous appeals that clog courts, delay punishment and burn through taxpayers' dollars. They now have been so successful that they can argue that California's death penalty doesn't work and costs too much.
Hancock is right about the dysfunction. Since 1978, California has executed 13 inmates, even though juries have sent close to 800 to Death Row. California's lethal-injection protocol has been on hold since February 2006 when U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stayed the execution of convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales lest Morales suffer any pain.
Death Row inmates are more likely to kill themselves than be executed. And a new report published in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review notes that 78 inmates died on Death Row due to natural causes or violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Feed the weeds, reap the whirlwind.
Nitrogen Asphxyation - the lowest cost, pain free, natural, no mess, no fuss, means of carrying out an execution.
Lani Hancock is an old commie from the 60’s, married to extreme leftist Tom Bates. She’d defend Stalin just as she supported Ho Chi Minh, a mass murderer.
NEED HELP: CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHO “LARRY LEVIN”, HER SPOKESMAN, IS? IS HE THE SAME AS THE PRO-HANOI LOBBYIST FROM THE COALITION TO STOP FUNDING THE WAR IN 1974-75.
EMAIL ME VIA FREEREPUBLIC. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR A BOOK.
THANKS.
The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. It does not guarantee a painless execution.
I’m so sorry for your sister. Losing a friend is hard enough; to lose one this way is that much more painful.
Yes, and how were convicts executed in the 1790’s? Hanging! A heck of a lot more “painful” than just being put to sleep gently after 25 years on death row.
If these same libiturds would USE the death penalty once in a while and stop “housing” those convicted, perhaps the cost they are worrying about would deminish. Too many and endless appeals defnintely cost money and lots of time. (Hey, coould be job creation for the attorneys???)
The gubment certainly didn’t waste any time getting ride of Timothy McVee now did they? The wanted him gone and gone he is. No more appeals, just “gone”.
To be entirely correct, McVeigh himself hastened the final moments arrival by refusing appeals. He was hell bent on being a martyr and the government was all to happy to bring it on.
So by not killing those on death row, the state is going broke keeping them alive.
Might be cheaper to just kill the activists.
Why not eradicate the entire situation and go for both? It is called the Death Penalty for a single purpose instead of being called the Death Deterent.
Inmates game the system. They are smart. Because they know there s almost no chance of being executed, many actually prefer being sentenced to death, because “death row” inmates, because of all the court decisions, actually enjoy far better conditions than the general population..
Mend it, don’t end it!
Not to mention the scumbag lawyers who all of a sudden “find” dubious evidence or preposterous theories right before the execution date. Or like in the Tookie Wilson case, try to create sympathy because he wrote a childrens book. Forget the murdering. Look at the CHILDREN’S book!
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