Capital punishment in California

Executions in California were carried out in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison. It was modified for the use of lethal injection, but has been returned to its original designated purpose, with the creation of a new chamber specifically for lethal injection.

Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in the U.S. state of California. The first recorded execution in the area that is now California took place in 1778 when four Native Americans were shot in San Diego County for conspiracy to commit murder.^{[citation needed]} These were the first of 709 executions before the California Supreme Court decision in People v. Anderson finding the death penalty to violate the state constitution, and the later Furman v. Georgia decision of the United States Supreme Court finding executions in general as practiced to violate the United States Constitution, both issued in 1972. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty with Gregg v. Georgia, 13 people have been executed by the state.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, halted executions in California after finding flaws in the state's execution process. The current hold is pending judicial review of a new execution chamber and new methodologies for executing prisoners. However, the moratorium is expected to extend into 2013 because of the current court battle between inmate attorneys and the State's Attorney General. Though prison officials have revised their procedures since 2006, death row inmates allege the procedures are still flawed and expose them to cruel and unusual punishment. As of March 2, 2011, there are 720 offenders (including 19 women) on California's "death row."

Signatures are currently being gathered to place the SAFE California Act on the November 2012 ballot. The “Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act” would replace California's death penalty with life imprisonment without parole and require those convicted of murder to work and pay restitution to victim families through the victim compensation fund.

SAFE California would also set aside $100 million in budget savings for critical law enforcement tools like DNA testing, rape kits and fingerprint analysis for the investigation of unsolved rape and murder cases. A shocking 46% of murder cases and 56% of reported rape cases go unsolved every year in California, on average.

Because California’s death penalty was enacted through the voter-initiative process, the only way to replace it is though a voter-approved ballot measure.

History

San Quentin State Prison, the location of the death row for the execution of male inmates.

Central California Women's Facility, the location of the death row for female inmates.

Four methods have been used historically for executions. Until slightly before California was admitted into the Union, executions were carried by firing squad. Upon admission, the state adopted hanging as the method of choice.

The penal code was modified on February 14, 1872, to state that hangings were to take place inside the confines of the county jail or other private places. The only people allowed to be present were the sheriff of the county, a physician, the District Attorney of the county, who would select at least 12 "reputable citizens." No more than two "ministers of the gospel" and no more than five people selected by the condemned could also be present.

Executions were moved to the state level in 1889 when the law was modified so that hangings would take place in one of the State Prisons — San Quentin State Prison and Folsom State Prison. According to the California Department of Corrections, although there was no law providing which prison was chosen by the trial judge, it was customary for recidivists to be sent to Folsom. Under these new laws, the first execution at San Quentin was Jose Gabriel on March 3, 1893, for murder. The first hanging at Folsom was Chin Hane, also for murder, on December 13, 1895. A total of 215 inmates were hanged at San Quentin and a total of 93 were hanged at Folsom.

1972 suspension of capital punishment

On April 24, 1972, the Supreme Court of California ruled in People v. Anderson that the current death penalty laws were unconstitutional and oversaw the commuting of 107 death sentences in the state in 1972, which in turn affected high profile cases such as Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Manson, sparing them from execution. Following the ruling, the California Constitution was quickly modified to reinstate capital punishment, under an initiative called Proposition 17. The statute was also modified to make the death penalty mandatory for a number of crimes including first degree murder in specific instances, kidnapping where a person dies, train wrecking where a person dies, treason against the state, and assault by a life prisoner if the victim dies within a year.

The debate over capital punishment was played out in a somewhat similar fashion on the national level. On June 29, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Furman v. Georgia, holding all capital punishment statutes then in effect in the United States to be unconstitutional. On July 2, 1976, the Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, reviewing capital punishment laws enacted in response to its Furman decision, found constitutional those statutes that allowed a jury to impose the death penalty after consideration of both aggravating and mitigating circumstances. On the same date, the Court held that statutes imposing a mandatory death penalty were unconstitutional.

In a later decision in 1976, the Supreme Court of California again held the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional as it did not allow the defendant to enter mitigating evidence. A further 70 prisoners had their sentences commuted following this. The next year, the statute was modified to deal with these issues. Life imprisonment without possibility of parole was also added as a punishment for capital offenses. A later change to the statute was in 1978 after Proposition 7 passed. This gave an automatic appeal to the Supreme Court of California, which would directly affirm or reverse the sentence and conviction without going through an intermediate appeal to the California Courts of Appeal. (The state supreme court is currently sponsoring^{[citation needed]} a proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow the assignment of capital appeals to the Courts of Appeal to alleviate the backlog of capital appeal cases.)

Introduction of lethal injection

The latest change of method came in January 1993, when the lethal injection was given as a choice for people sentenced to death. David Mason chose to die of lethal gas, because he wanted to suffer for his crimes. This was changed in 1994 to have lethal injection as the default method. The first person executed under these new laws was William Bonin on 23 February 1996. 13 people have been executed since California reinstated the death penalty in 1977, but 56 others have died on death row of other causes, including 14 of suicide since October 25, 2007.

2006 Federal court ordered moratorium on executions and non-partisan studies

Fogel's ruling halted executions in California for nearly 5 years.

In February 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy D. Fogel blocked the execution of convicted murderer Michael Morales because of complaints about the administration of lethal injection in the gas chamber. It was argued that if the three-drug lethal injection procedure were administered incorrectly, it could lead to suffering for the condemned, potentially constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The issue arose from an injunction made by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which held that an execution could only be carried out by a medical technician legally authorized to administer intravenous medications. The case led to a de facto moratorium of capital punishment in California as the state was unable to obtain the services of a licensed medical professional to carry out the execution.

Several other victims' families testified to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in opposition to capital punishment, explaining that whilst they had suffered great losses, they did not view retribution as morally acceptable, and that the high cost of capital punishment was preventing the solving of cold cases.

But others who contest this argument says the greater cost of trials where the prosecution does seek the death penalty is offset by the savings from avoiding trial altogether in cases where the defendant pleads guilty to avoid the death penalty.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice concluded after an extensive review that under the current death penalty system, death sentences are unlikely ever to be carried out (with extremely rare exceptions) because of a process “plagued with excessive delay” in the appointment of post-conviction counsel and a “severe backlog” in the California Supreme Court's review of death judgments. According to CCFAJ's report, the lapse of time from sentence of death to execution constitutes the longest delay of any death penalty state.

An exhaustive study released in 2011, found that since 1978 capital punishment has cost California about $4 billion. This report report, by Arthur Alarcon, long-time judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and law professor Paula Mitchell, concluded that "since reinstating the death penalty in 1978, California taxpayers have spent roughly $4 billion to fund a dysfunctional death penalty system that has carried out no more than 13 executions."

Moratorium continues

The old execution room at San Quentin State Prison (top), though still functional as a gas chamber, has been supplanted by new facilities designed specifically for lethal injection (bottom).

In addition to the federal case challenging the lethal injection protocol, state proceedings have provided an additional basis for halting executions. In the state case, the issue is whether the execution process complies with the Administrative Procedures Act. In December 2011, Judge Faye D’Opal of Marin County Superior Court ruled that the state had failed to justify the decision to put in place a three-drug lethal injection method, which some experts had said carries a risk of “excruciating pain,” instead of a one-drug method, which one of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s own experts had recommended.

Current legislation

Method

Prisoners sentenced to death are allowed to select lethal injection or asphyxiation^{[citation needed]}.

Under the California Penal Code § 3604:

"The punishment of shall be inflicted by the administration of a lethal gas or by an intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death…"

Pursuant to subsection (b) of that Code section, if the prisoner does not make a decision on the method within 10 days after the warden's service upon the inmate of an execution warrant, then the default is given as lethal injection.

In October 1994, a United States federal judge ruled that the gas chamber was an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment in Fierro v. Gomez, 865 F.Supp. 1387 (N.D. Cal. 1994), and this was upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in February 1996, Fierro v. Gomez, 77 F.3d 301 (9th Cir. 1996). The Supreme Court of the United States never ruled on the case, however, as California amended its statute to provide lethal injection as the default method while the case was pending on appeal. The Supreme Court of the United States, however, did subsequently hold in Stewart v. LaGrand, 526 U.S. 115 (1999) that by selecting a particular method of execution an inmate waives his right to challenge that method's constitutionality. This means that lethal gas still theoretically remains an option in California should an inmate opt for it.

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime or mentally retarded are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Capital offenses

The penal code provides for possible capital punishment in:

• treason against the state of California, defined as levying war against the state, adhering to its enemies, or giving them aid and comfort.
• perjury causing execution of an innocent person
• first-degree murder with special circumstances
  • for financial gain (1)
  • the defendant had previously been convicted of first or second degree murder (2)
  • multiple murders (3)
  • committed using explosives (4) ; (6)
  • to avoid arrest or aiding in escaping custody (5)
  • the victim was an on-duty peace officer; federal law enforcement officer or agent; or firefighter (7) ; (8) ; (9)
  • the victim was a witness to a crime and the murder was committed to prevent them from testifying (10)
  • the victim was a prosecutor or assistant prosecutor; judge or former judge; elected or appointed official; juror; and the murder was in retaliation for the victim's official duties (11) ; (12) ; (13) ; (20)
  • the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity" (14)
  • the murderer lay in wait for the victim (15)
  • the victim was intentionally killed because of their race, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. (a hate crime) (16)
  • the murder was committed during the commissioning of robbery; kidnapping; rape; sodomy; performance of a lewd or lascivious act upon the person of a child under the age of 14 years; oral copulation; burglary; arson; train wrecking; mayhem; rape by instrument; carjacking; torture; poisoning (17)
  • the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture (18)
  • poisoning (19)
  • the murder was committed by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle (21)
  • the defendant is an active member of a criminal street gang and was to further the activities of the gang (22)
• train wrecking which leads to a person's death.

Public opinion

The Field Research Corporation found in February 2004 that when asked how they personally felt about capital punishment, 68% supported it and 31% opposed it (6% offered no opinion). This was a fall from 72% two years previous, and a rise from 63% in 2000. The 2004 poll was asked about the time that Kevin Cooper had his execution stayed hours before his scheduled death after 20 years on Death Row.

When asked if they thought the death penalty generally fair and free of error in California, 58% agreed and 32% disagreed (11% offered no opinion). When the results were broken down along ethnicity, of the people who identified themselves as African American, 57% disagreed that the death penalty was fair and free of error.

SAFE California Act

Because California’s death penalty was enacted through the voter-initiative process, the only way to replace it is though a voter-approved ballot measure. Signatures are currently being gathered to put the SAFE California Act on the November 2012 ballot. The “Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act” would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and require those convicted of murder to work and pay restitution to victim families through the victim compensation fund. It would also set aside $100 million in budget saving for local law enforcement for the investigation of unsolved rape and murder cases.

According to the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance, “Net savings to the state and counties that could amount to the high tens of millions of dollars annually on a statewide basis due to the elimination of the death penalty.”

Supporters of the initiative include murder victim family members, Franky Carrillo, a man who was wrongly convicted of murder and served 20 years in state prison along with death row exonerees, Ron Briggs, who together with his father Senator John Briggs, created the initiative to reinstate the death penalty in California, Don Heller, the author of California's death penalty law, Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin State Prison, who presided over four executions, and is currently the executive director of Death Penalty Focus, and Gil Garcetti, who sought and obtained many death judgments when he was the District Attorney of Los Angeles.

Executions after 1976

A total of 13 individuals convicted of murder have been executed by the state of California following the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Gregg v. Georgia. The first two executions were by gas chamber; all subsequent executions were by lethal injection.

	Executed person	Date of execution	Victims	Under Governor
1	Robert Alton Harris	April 21, 1992	John Mayeski and Michael Baker	Wilson
2	David Edwin Mason	August 24, 1993	Joan Picard, Arthur Jennings, Boyd Johnson, Antionette Brown, and Dorothy Land	Wilson
3	William George Bonin	February 23, 1996	Marcus Grabs, Donald Hyden, David Murillo, Dennis Frank Fox, Charles Miranda, James McCabe, Ronald Gatlin, Harry Todd Turner, Russell Rugh, Glenn Barker, Steven Wood, Darin Lee Kendrick, Lawrence Sharp, and Steven Jay Wells	Wilson
4	Keith Daniel Williams	May 31, 1996	Lourdes Meza, Miguel Vargas and Salvador Vargas	Wilson
5	Thomas Martin Thompson	July 14, 1998	Ginger Fleischli	Wilson
6	Jaturun Siripongs	February 9, 1999	Packovan Wattanporn and Quach Nguyen	Davis
7	Manuel Pina Babbitt	May 4, 1999	Leah Schendel	Davis
8	Darrell Keith Rich	March 15, 2000	Annette Fay Edwards, Patricia Ann Moore, Linda Diane Slovik, and Annette Lynn Selix	Davis
9	Robert Lee Massie	March 27, 2001	Boris G. Naumoff	Davis
10	Stephen Wayne Anderson	January 29, 2002	Elizabeth Lyman	Davis
11	Donald Jay Beardslee	January 19, 2005	Stacey Benjamin and Patty Geddling	Schwarzenegger
12	Stanley Tookie Williams	December 13, 2005	Albert Owens, Yen-Yi Yang, Tsai-Shai Lin, and Yee-Chen Lin	Schwarzenegger
13	Clarence Ray Allen	January 17, 2006	Bryon Schletewitz, Josephine Rocha, and Douglas White	Schwarzenegger

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
• Crime in California

External links

• Inmates Executed, 1893 to Present. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Retrieved on 2011-10-15.
• Executions in California 1778–1967
• Capital Punishment Information from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
• "Two-thirds of California voters favor the death penalty, But a sizeable minority believe it has not been fairly implemented (PDF)" (PDF). Field Research Corporation. 5 March 2004. http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/RLS2112.pdf. 
• California execution chamber photos