• California Proposition 34,  Death Penalty

    California Votes to Keep Death Penalty – Voters Reject Proposition 34

    California Death Chamber Paradox: California Death Row Inmates Oppose Proposition 34

    The lethal injection table at San Quentin Prison, California

    On Tuesday, Californians rejected Proposition 34 which would have abolished the death penalty in the state.

    The Field Poll has been querying Californians on the death penalty for more than 50 years, and in 2011 there was a notable shift. Although 68% of respondents said they were in favor of keeping capital punishment, a percentage that had fluctuated only slightly since 2002, the answers grew more interesting when the question was phrased a different way. Asked whether they would rather sentence killers to life without parole or the death penalty, a significant majority of Californians in 2011 said they preferred the former — 48% favored life imprisonment vs. 40% for state-sponsored execution. Since the poll started asking this question in 2000, death had always trumped a life-in-prison sentence.

    Proposition 34 would have done precisely what voters in 2011 said they wanted, resentencing the 726 death row inmates to life without the possibility of parole and eliminating capital punishment as an option in future cases. Yet the initiative lost, 52.8% to 47.2%.

    The Times goes on to lament (sine the Times Editorial Board supported Proposition 34) that it is just a matter of time before death penalty abolitionists win.

    I am not so sure.

    Here is Gallup Polling on the matter.

    Gallup Poll on death penaltyIn a very LEFT tide Presidential election cycle( with wide participation by voters) with virtually NO opposition (certainly NO television advertising), Proposition 34 still lost by 6 points.

    There have been too many heinous crimes in California and there is no incentive to give leniency to those already on Death Row. The fiscal argument may sway a few, but when Californians are reminded of the horrendous crimes, they will support the death penalty.

    Now, if we can only convince the federal and state courts to speed up and streamline the process of appeals. And, allow the California Department of Corrections to enforce the law.

  • California Death Penalty,  California Proposition 34,  Death Penalty

    Paradox: California Death Row Inmates Oppose Proposition 34

    San Quentin Prison California Death By Lethal Injection Chamber

    The lethal injection table at San Quentin Prison, California

    Go figure.

    California death row inmates oppose California Proposition 34 which will abolish the death penalty.

    Why?

    Prisoner appeal rights would be dramatically curtailed.

    Like other state prisoners, the 725 inmates on California’s Death Row can’t vote. But if they could, there’s evidence that most of them would vote against a November ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty.

    It’s not that they want to die, attorney Robert Bryan said. They just want to hang on to the possibility of proving that they’re innocent, or at least that they were wrongly convicted. That would require state funding for lawyers and investigators – funding that Proposition 34 would eliminate for many Death Row inmates after the first round of appeals.

    I grow tired with the anti-capital punishment crowd, including state and federal judges who obstruct the enforcement of California law.

    I, too, will be voting for California Proposition 34 in November, but it won’t be to preserve inmate appeal rights, but to obtain justice for the many victims of these convicted criminals.