Post by thinkinkmesa on Aug 25, 2011 21:01:20 GMT -5
Voters won't get chance to repeal death penalty
A bill that would have let California voters decide whether to repeal the death penalty will not move forward because of a lack of support in the Legislature, the measure's author announced Thursday.
SB490 by Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, was introduced in June following the release of a study that found the state is paying $184 million more a year to keep people on death row than it would if inmates were simply left in prison for life.
The three-year study by a federal judge and a law professor also found that California taxpayers have spent an average of $308 million for each of the 13 executions conducted since capital punishment was reinstated in the state in 1978.
Hancock's proposal, if placed on the ballot by the Legislature and approved by voters, would have replaced the death penalty with permanent imprisonment, ordered the closure of Death Row and converted death penalty sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
"The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement Thursday. "I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and fund essential public institutions like the courts. Study after study has demonstrated that the cost of maintaining the death penalty when so many basic needs are going unmet has become an expense we can no longer afford."
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/25/BAHK1KS48S.DTL#ixzz1W61Bbf71
A bill that would have let California voters decide whether to repeal the death penalty will not move forward because of a lack of support in the Legislature, the measure's author announced Thursday.
SB490 by Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, was introduced in June following the release of a study that found the state is paying $184 million more a year to keep people on death row than it would if inmates were simply left in prison for life.
The three-year study by a federal judge and a law professor also found that California taxpayers have spent an average of $308 million for each of the 13 executions conducted since capital punishment was reinstated in the state in 1978.
Hancock's proposal, if placed on the ballot by the Legislature and approved by voters, would have replaced the death penalty with permanent imprisonment, ordered the closure of Death Row and converted death penalty sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
"The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement Thursday. "I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and fund essential public institutions like the courts. Study after study has demonstrated that the cost of maintaining the death penalty when so many basic needs are going unmet has become an expense we can no longer afford."
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/25/BAHK1KS48S.DTL#ixzz1W61Bbf71