Comments on: Voters Might Get to Kill Death Penalty

By: Margo Schulter

Margo Schulter — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:08:16 +0000

The critical fact here is that permanent imprisonment or life without parole (LWOP) has been the law in California for the most heinous first degree murders involving one or more “special circumstances” since 1977, and that the law means what says — with an “escape clause” only for the handful out of 3700 and more prisoners receiving this sentence who have later been found actually innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted. Otherwise, it is a very effective means of incapacitation, but with room to correct the rare miscarriage of justice.
As for the rightly remembered murder of Official Ian James Campbell in the “Onion Field” case of 1963, this was long before the time of the Bird Court, and also before the mandatory sentence of LWOP which now rightly applies to the first degree murder of a peace officer in California (and has since 1977). Ironically, the “Little Lindberg Law” then in effect in California (Penal Code Section 209) gave the perpetrators a motive to kill the kidnapped officer under the misunderstanding that his kidnapping in itself might lead them to the gas chamber. In fact, if the officer had been released unharmed, the death penalty would not have applied. (In 1977, in _Coker v. Georgia_, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty for nonhomicidal offenses such as sexual assault or kidnapping.) This is absolutely no excuse for the cold-blooded killing of an officer who died to protect us all, but a lesson on the paradoxes of “deterrence.” The short story is that LWOP has been place in California for four decades, with current law also requiring that LWOP prisoners perform labor and make restitution to families of murder victims and support other services for victims. Passing SB 490 and ending our dysfunctional death penalty will free $184 million each year to get more cops and homicide investigators on the beat, and deliver better services to crime victims. That is justice!

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:24:52 +0000

I say we follow the example of Texas, groups can make numbers say what ever they want. Execution is a deterrent of at least one.

By: Centurion

Centurion — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:43:00 +0000

ExPFCWintergree, your assertions about LWOP conditions in California prisons are factually incorrect. California’s prison classification system allows LWOP inmates to…with good behavior over time, work their way into lower custody facilities. Google “Jimmy Smith, Onion Field Killer,” and read the article. Convicted of kidnapping and killing a police officer and sentenced to death in the early 70’s, sentence commuted to LWOP by the Rose Bird court several years later, he was my clerk in a level III prison. He subsequently PAROLED to the streets of LA, failed to report to his parole officer, and died in the LA county jail.

As for level 4 prisons being solitary confinement, you are again mistaken. Our prison system has several mainline level 4 yards where LWOP’s live in two man cells, walk to a dining room in groups for meals, are allowed daily yard time and day rooom priveleges at night.

Even in our level 4 SHU units (to include Pelican Bay), many of these inmates are double celled, and all the cells are on open tiers where they communicate with each other routinely. So the term “solitary confinement”, when applied to conditions in any of California’s prisons, is innacurate.

I am a retired correctional officer from the Calif Dpt of Corrections. I have worked level IV mainline facilities, level IV SHU facilities, level III facilities, and I know what I am talking about.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:06:43 +0000

The last person executed in CA was Tookie Williams in 2005; someones got their ‘facts’ wrong.

I am for elimination of the death penalty for religious reasons; also I believe in this day and age when it’s a long time before the penalty is carried out it serves as no deterrent.

By: Brian R Marvel

Brian R Marvel — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:24:39 +0000

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding of why the Death Penalty in CA is so expensive is the State pays for all the appeals; prosecution and defense. Unlike Florida and Texas, those states only pay for one appeal.

By: ExPFCWintergreen

ExPFCWintergreen — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:39:03 +0000

There is no way to fix the current process by which the death penalty is (not) imposed. Because of this, California should just simply acknowledge reality and eliminate the penalty. Life without possibility of parole is a perfectly effective alternative. Contrary to what some might think, it really is life without possibility of parole, and persons sentenced to LWOP are housed in their own version of death row. They are in Level V, which is basically solitary confinement, with one hour per day in sunlight, in their own cell. These inmates never see any other person, and live out their lives in a little cell by themselves. In my opinion, this is just as good as a death sentence.

By: Centurion

Centurion — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:01:27 +0000

The writer assumes that California voters would vote to enact this bill. I am not so sure.

I think many of us would prefer a bill that would streamline the process and reduce the waiting time from the current “20 years to never” to something a little more realistic. Like maybe 5 years. Convicted death row felons currently get a nearly unlimited amount of appeals for what often prove to be frivelous and outright ridiculous issues.

We need to fix the process, not do away with it.