California to vote on whether to abolish the death penalty
Abolitionist Action Committee member Bo Chamberlin of Columbus, Ohio, fasts with other death penalty opponents in front of the US Supreme Court June 29, 2009 in Washington, DC. AAC members will fast and hold a vigil to mark historic Supreme Court decisions in Furman v. Georgia, in which ruled on a consistency requirement for the death penalty, and Gregg v. Georgia, which upheld laws in various states to reinstate the death penalty.
LOS ANGELES — California may abolish the death penalty at the ballots in November, after a measure that would replace capital punishment with a life sentence was qualified on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The "Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act," or SAFE California Act, will be considered on November 6, Secretary of State Debra Bowen told Agence France Presse.
If voters opt to get rid of the state's death row — the largest in America — California would become the 18th state in the US without a death penalty, according to the Times.
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There are currently 725 inmates awaiting the death penalty in California, according to the Associated Press. Should the bill pass, they will have their sentences converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which would become the harshest punishment prosecutors could seek.
Supporters of the measure say that it could save the state millions of dollars through layoffs of lawyers who handle death penalty cases, in addition to not having to maintain the capital punishment facilities at San Quentin State Prison, the AP reported. A 2009 study found that California spends $184 million a year on maintaining the death penalty system, according to the AP.
Because the legal process for capital punishment takes so long, many of California's death row prisoners are more likely to die of old age than by injection, according to the Daily Beast. The state has also only successfully executed 13 inmates in the past 23 years, which cost taxpayers $4 billion, the Daily Beast reported.
"Our system is broken, expensive and it always will carry the grave risk of a mistake. SAFE California offers a solution with savings at a time when we're laying off teachers and cutting vital services," Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin and one of the measure's official sponsors, said in a statement, AFP reported.
California's voters have historically been in favor of the death penalty, according to the Times, and reinstated it in 1978, according to AFP.
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"The people of California have regularly voted for the death penalty by wide margins, but of course it has to be a matter of concern," Kent Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which advocates for tough criminal penalties, told the Times.
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