PROP. 34: Enforcing California’s death penalty system is not a worthy use of taxpayer money.
By Kayla Chang, Copy Editor
Proposition 34 on the November ballot would repeal the death penalty and establish life without the possibility of parole as the maximum punishment for convicted criminals.
The California Field Roll shows that 42 percent of likely voters are planning to vote yes on Prop. 34, and 45 percent are planning to vote no. Not that this is an especially partisan issue, but it’s worth noting that half of California’s Democrats support the proposition, whereas only 23 percent of Republicans do. (I have a working theory that this is because the death penalty is written in the Bible. In the form of stoning.)
Never mind that the U.S. is the only nation in the Western World that has not banned the death penalty. We were also the only nation in the Western World without universal health care, so why start catching up now? The death penalty brings a sense of justice and closure to those affected, right? And it’s not barbaric because the U.S. has gallantly led the effort to develop less painful execution techniques, replacing hanging first with the electric chair, then the gas chamber and finally, with lethal injection. (Which is a bit like polishing an anvil before dropping it on someone’s foot. But hey, that is one shiny anvil!) Though we as a civilized people really should pride ourselves on having perfected the art of legalized murder, it’s time we acknowledge that the death penalty system in California is broken.
California’s death penalty was reinstated 35 years ago and has remained useless and ineffective ever since. According to a 2011 analysis by federal judge Arthur Alarcón and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell, taxpayers have spent about $4 billion in expenses related to California’s capital cases since the reinstatement of the death penalty. That works out to about $300 million for each execution. With all that monetary force supporting the system, one would think something at least semi-useful would get done; but no inmate in California has been put to death in the last five years because of an ongoing battle over execution procedures. Your money would be better spent shoveled into pits of fire.
In other words, the death penalty is like some great big saturated sponge that sucks up all of your monetary juices then uses it moisten its spitballs, all of which miss the teacher and fall impotently at his feet.
“I thought the ultimate punishment would save money and end victim grief with finality,” Donald Heller, an attorney who authored a 1978 ballot initiative that expanded the definition of capital crimes, wrote in the Los Angeles Daily News. “I did not account for multiple defense lawyers, expert witnesses including scientists, jury consultants and investigators; nor did I consider the cost of countless appeals and habeas corpus petitions.”
If Prop. 34 is adopted, courts would save $50 million annually for appellate litigation involving death row inmates, county jails and courts would save money since death penalty cases are substantially more expensive to carry to trial and correction officials would not need to make the expensive upgrade to the death row at San Quentin State Prison. Altogether, Prop. 34 would save the state about $100 million the first few years and about $130 million in subsequent years, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The $100 million saved would, as dictated by the proposition, be directed to law enforcement agencies to help homicide and rape cases. California should concentrate its resources on reducing crime on the streets instead of on punishing those already in prison.
Ignoring the colossal fiscal irresponsibility of the state for a moment, the current death penalty system ensures neither deterrence nor punishment. What solace is it to victims’ loved ones when the average time between sentence and execution is 25 years? Proponents say that California could modify its laws to carry out executions as expeditiously as Texas, but doing so would risk committing the same legal errors and unequal application that has marred Texas’ judicial system. There are limits to how much the process can be expedited without chancing the execution of an innocent person.
The issue of the death penalty is an intricate web of philosophical quandary that poses abstract questions challenging our conceived notions of justice, mercy and the nature of man.
So let me simplify.
If you value your money, vote yes on Prop. 34.