Posted on 04/23/2012 5:42:58 PM PDT by SmithL
California voters will decide this November whether to abolish the nation's largest death row by replacing capital punishment with life in prison without possibility of parole.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office announced Monday that supporters of the SAFE California Act of 2012 had submitted enough petition signatures to qualify their measure for November's ballot.
"It's a proposition whose time has come," measure proponent Jeanne Woodford told reporters on a conference call Monday morning, noting even those who led the death penalty's 1978 reinstatement now see it as "a colossal failure."
Woodford, a former San Quentin State Prison warden who oversaw four executions but is now executive director of the anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Focus, cited a recent study that found the death penalty costs California about $184 million a year in special housing and security, legal resources and other costs for the condemned.
The measure would create a SAFE California Fund that redirects budget savings of $100 million over three years into the investigation of unsolved rape and murder cases.
The measure needed 504,760 valid signatures from registered voters in order to qualify; campaign consultant Steve Smith said more than 5,000 volunteers gathered and submitted more than 800,000 signatures across all 58 counties.
Connecticut state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven, carried a successful bill -- now awaiting his governor's signature -- to convert that state's death penalty to life without possibility of parole. On Monday's conference call, he said California should follow the example.
"More and more people realize that... the promise to victims is hollow and the promise to taxpayers is hollow," he said.
State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, had carried a bill to the same effect last year but yanked it from consideration because there wasn't enough support in the Legislature. Groups including Crime Victims United of California and the California District Attorneys Association opposed that bill, and are likely to oppose this measure as well.
Does that include the ObamaCare Death Panels?
Gutless bastards, anyone who supports the repeal..
Victims and their families and the crimes done mean nothing to them.. inmates die of old age.. the DR population ages and ages.. Justice is not just blind, it is nauseated as well..
I guess I should start paying much more attention to Politics. Anybody here know of a good Website where this kind of stuff is discussed? /s
And did so despite numerous polls showing a clear majority of CT voters favoring the DP.
But the real reason to go along with it is that the inmates have been succerssfully gamig the system for decades. They know thay even if sentenced to death, there is no real chance of being executed, but those on death row get much better accomodations, privileges, etc...they actually WANT to be on death row..
It’s weird. Californians don’t mind killing babies but they hate killing murderers. What a strange state.
California just spent almost 3 years & millions of $$$$ to ‘rebuild’ the gas chamber/lethal injection chamber because the loonies said it was ‘cruel & unusual punishment’.
If they get this turned over—that money is more $$$ wasted in Calif.
Last time I heard any numbers, there were 751 inmates on Calif death row-—some of them had been there over 30 years!!!!!
Yep.
There is no death penalty there anyway. It is a sham and a very expensive circus. I say release some of these scum in general population, that may do the trick.
if the law is going to be changed, it should only apply to anyone convicted after the last prisoner on death row was executed....many years down the road and would affect none that have already been sentenced.
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