Commission finds California’s Death Penalty System Full of Flaws
by Curt Feese, CPF Steering Committee Member
On June 30, 2008, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued its final report. In 2004, the Commission was established to study the criminal justice system in California to: determine past failings, examine ways of making improvements, and make recommendations for the just, fair, and accurate application and administration of criminal justice in California. Many findings have been previously released and legislation proposed, but our State politicians have been unwilling to enact these reforms, primarily because many of them don’t want to appear “soft on crime.”
All 22 members of the Commission agree that our capital punishment system is dysfunctional. Since the death penalty was restored in California in 1978, 98 inmates have left death row because their convictions or sentences were overturned, 38 died of natural causes, 14 committed suicide, and 13 were executed. The Commission’s final report stresses the financial toll on California of our current death penalty system. Using conservative projections, the Commission estimates that the current capital punishment system costs $137 million per year. If the proposed reforms needed to bring the current system to more fair and accurate results were implemented, the cost would be $233 million per year. However, the Commission points out that a system that imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would cost only about $11 million per year. Can California afford the cost of vengeance?
At the hearings held by the Commission over the past years, experts have testified on the many technical aspects of legal representation, policing methods and availability of funds for investigators and expert witnesses for the defense. However, 16 members of California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV) also gave their testimony to the Commissioners. They offer a unique perspective as loved ones of murder victims who oppose the death penalty. They are indeed courageous to speak out in a society where “an eye for an eye” revenge is so often expressed in the media.
One of these CCV witnesses, Amanda and Nick Wilcox, spoke about the murder of their 19 year-old daughter, Laura, in 2001. They specifically questioned the cost of California’s death penalty and whether money could be better spent elsewhere. The Wilcoxes told the Commission that funding for grief counseling ran out well before they were ready to end the sessions. They reminded the Commissioners that when a county District Attorney decides to seek a death sentence, cuts have to be made elsewhere in their budget.
In addition to the huge annual costs of the current death penalty system, money has been budgeted to expand and renovate Death Row at San Quentin -- currently estimated at $400 million. As members of a Church that opposes the death penalty on spiritual grounds, we also need to recognize that the financial burden ofcapital punishment is doing great harm to those that need our support the most. This is the time to express to our political leaders our opposition to the death penalty, asking them to allocate our scarce resources instead to educating our children, providing for the poor and elderly, and improving health care, etc.
For the full report from the California Commission, go to http://www.ccfaj.org/