California's death penalty process is 'dysfunctional,' panel finds
The time from sentencing to execution is twice the national average. Panel recommends limiting crimes eligible for capital punishment or sentencing inmates to life without parole instead.
California's administration of the death penalty is "dysfunctional" and "close to collapse," plagued by delays of nearly twice the national average from sentencing to execution and drowning under a backlog of cases, a state commission reported today.
In its final report, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice said the state's death row of 670 inmates -- the largest in the nation -- will continue to swell unless the state nearly doubles what it now spends on attorneys for inmates or changes sentencing laws.
In an interview, Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, executive director of the commission, called today's report "kind of like poking a stick in a hornet's nest" and predicted it would receive wide attention.
The 22-member commission, created by the Legislature to recommend improvements in the criminal justice system, includes law enforcement and defense bar representatives and victim advocates.
Although commissioners strongly disagreed on some issues, they were unanimous in concluding that the current death penalty system was failing and in agreeing that a large amount of money was needed for significant change. The report offers alternative proposals for reform.
The commission did not advocate abolishing the death penalty but did note that California could save $100 million a year if the state replaced the punishment with sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole. Death row prisoners cost more to confine, are granted more resources for appeals, have more expensive trials and usually die in prison anyway, the commission said in its 117-page report.
The time from death sentence to execution in California is 20 to 25 years, compared with the national average of 12 years, the commission said. Thirty inmates have been on death row more than 25 years, 119 for more than 20 and 240 for more than 15.
"The system's failures create cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law . . . weaken any possible deterrent benefits of capital punishment, increase the emotional trauma experienced by murder victims' families and delay the resolution of meritorious capital appeals," the commission said.
The commission learned of "no credible evidence" that the state had executed an innocent person but said the risk remained. Fourteen people convicted of murder in California from 1989 through 2003 were later exonerated. Six death row inmates who won new trials were acquitted or had their charges dismissed for lack of evidence.
