Why would Californians want to get rid of it?ĭebra J. All of the outcomes that the anti-death-penalty lobby extol - cheaper, faster and more certain - exist only because of the death penalty. In such cases, there is quick resolution, certainty of outcome and victims' families need not worry about an offender getting off, because the defendant has no grounds for appeals. Sacramento Deputy District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert estimates that death-row inmates represent less than 2 percent of those convicted for murder.Īt least with the death penalty on the books, there's a good chance that some of the worst offenders will agree to a sentence of life without parole in order to avoid lethal injection. Given his history of mental illness, it's not clear Loughner would have been found guilty.Įven when it doesn't work, the death penalty works.Ĭalifornia prosecutors and California juries do not reach the death penalty lightly. Without the death penalty, it is doubtful that Jared Lee Loughner would have pleaded guilty to a 2011 shooting in Tucson during which he killed six and wounded then-Rep. "You take the death penalty off the table," Klaas told The Chronicle, and communities will be held hostage to the fear and uncertainty that follow when a young person goes missing. We couldn't imagine the confession to Amber's murder never seeing the light of day, leaving an eternal question mark." Parents Brent and Kelly King agreed to the plea bargain, because, they said in a statement covered by CBS News, "the Dubois family has been through unthinkable hell the past 14 months. Gardner even led authorities to Amber's bones. He admitted to killing King, and also to the 2009 murder and attempted rape of 14-year-old Amber Dubois. After the convicted sex offender was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King in 2010, Gardner went for a deal. He cited cases like that of John Gardner. The Legislative Analyst's Office also noted that it cannot compute the financial effect that might follow if murderers stop pleading guilty and making plea bargains that would enable them to avoid death row.Īs Klaas sees it, the anti-death-penalty lobby is asking Californians to disarm themselves unilaterally. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that the savings could amount to $100 million annually in the first few years. So now the folks behind Proposition 34 argue that California's death penalty is "too costly" and "broken beyond repair." End the death penalty, they say, and Californians will save money on sentencing trials, costly appeals and "special death row housing." Thanks to a highly successful defense lobby and federal judges who have stalled the enforcement of California law, only 13 of the state's 700-plus death-row inmates have been executed since 1992. That, he emphasized, is "what's supposed to stop." Klaas wants to see Davis executed, he told me later, because the man who killed his daughter should have no influence in this world. Davis also wonders if there's anyone out there who wants to know who he really is, and "if for someone like myself, can one ever fall back in love with life again?"ĭavis invites interested parties to write to him at San Quentin. It turns out the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty hosts a Richard Allen Davis home page, on which the convicted killer displays "hand-painted wood hobby craft items," which he made, and posts photos of himself.
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