The commission recommended that lower courts should hear appeals and constitutional challenges of death sentences to take pressure off the California Supreme Court, which now is the only state court to decide such appeals.
There are currently at least 21 circumstances that qualify a defendant for the death penalty. One of the most frequently used in California is felony murder, in which a person is killed during the course of another felony, such as a robbery, the report said. The death penalty can be given to anyone who participated in the robbery, not just the person who did the killing.
If the state chooses to reduce the number of qualifying offenses for death, the sentences of inmates whose crimes would no longer be punishable by execution should be commuted to life without possibility of parole, the commission said.
"Taking this step would actually have little impact for the death row inmates involved," the commission said. "Most of them will never be executed but will die in prison."
Reaction to the report was mixed, with supporters of the death penalty more critical.
Kent S. Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, said he was disappointed that the commission failed to recommend other measures that would reduce delays, including limiting inmate appeals and holding attorneys to tight deadlines.
But he agreed with some of the commission's proposals. "Nobody has ever been satisfied with the way things are, and people on the pro-death penalty side are just as dissatisfied as the anti- side, perhaps more," Scheidegger said.
Natasha Minsker, death penalty policy director for the ACLU of Northern California, said she was surprised that the diverse commissioners were unanimous in deciding that an additional $100 million a year was needed to reform the system.
But she doubted the state would follow through because "that means spending money we don't have."
Several of the commissioners who advocated abolishing the death penalty complained that it was too costly, biased by race, geography and income, prone to error and failed to consider an inmate's possible redemption.
The commission, established four years ago, went out of business Monday with the issuance of its final report. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed three bills that grew out of the commission's previous recommendations. Another bill became law. Other commission proposals could be implemented without the need for legislative action.
