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Big bucks boost death penalty battle

December 1, 2011

A $1.2 million jump in recent contributions is being reported by a group hoping to repeal California’s death penalty.

Taxpayers for Justice plans to gather 504,760 signatures by March from registered voters to qualify the question for the 2012 ballot. The group describes itself as “a coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victim advocates, and individuals exonerated from wrongful conviction.”

Major donors listed in the report include several California branches of the American Civil Liberties Union at $41,770, Google executive Robert Alan Eustace at $125,000, Hyatt Development Corporation CEO Nicholas Pritzker at $500,000, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at $125,000.

CalCoastNews reported in August that since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, state taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment. The state has carried out 13 executions since then, or about $308 million each.

A comprehensive analysis of the death penalty’s costs to taxpayers conducted by a federal judge and a law professor over a three-year period found that the state spends $184 million annually on the condemned.

There are 714 death row prisoners in California.


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Of the remaining 57 countries of the world that still allow the death penalty, only three others could be considered “first world nations”, that being Japan, China and India, along with us of course. Even if there was a 100% certainty of an accused person being guilty of a capital offense, is it really the place of a nation-state to murder that human being? Here is a link to a site that lists all of the countries in the world, showing when they stopped using the death penalty or if they are still allowing it, which shows all of the other countries that we are equal to, like Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia and so on. We should be so proud to be among so many forward thinking nations; instead we could be on the same plane as all of Europe, the Scandinavian nations and the rest of the other 139 nations that have outlawed the death penalty.


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Crazies running this state into the ground.


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13 executions in 33 years and there are 714 death row prisoners here in California??? Why such a long wait?? No wonder we are spending soo much money! The justice system is putting these people on death row, but not even executing them!!! I beleive if the case was without a doubt guilty then they shouldnt have to waste our money keeping them around for years on end! Thats just my 2 cents!


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The problem is it’s not always without a doubt. DNA has proved that innocent men have been wrongly convicted too many times. Just lock them up for life without the possibility of parole, confine them to a cell 24/7, no need to kill anybody. Caging someone 24/7 like the animal they are should be satisfactory recourse when punishing a criminal that deserves to die.


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Cindy,


California’s “three strikes and you’re out” law is no game. It’s one of the harshest sentencing schemes in the country and a law that can send people convicted of even nonviolent offenses to prison for life.


Do you want to lock these individuals up 24/7/365 as well? Or, do you want to make a detraction and logically change your mind?


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If you want to read a great who done it, read the recent case of Thompson v. Connick out of New Orleans parish. And no, it wasn’t the butler who did it. Unfortunately, after eighteen years of hiding evidence that proved the defendant was innocent, it wasn’t him, either.


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WOW, I am slightly familiar with this case. I have no idea who done it and maybe I’ll read about it (like a good murder mystery) when I have time. As I recall their were several prosecutors involved who suppressed blood evidence that would have proved this guy was innocent. He was on death row many years and was saved at the last second if I recall when someone located the suppressed evidence. But it was very complicated because it was a matter of causing him to be convicted on one case where he was innocent which lead to making him look guilty on another case (murder) that maybe he was or wasn’t guilty of? Now you have me curious, was he “possibly” ultimately guilty of murder but acquitted because he got set up in a previous case he was innocent in? Now that I think of it, it’s a good one and now I’m going to have to read it because I think it’s probably one of the most interesting and it might have a twist. Does it have a twist?


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my2cents,


Hey, let me give you a whole nickel on this topic if you want to rush God’s creation to justice! What’s the big deal about the death penalty if one is a TRUE Christian?


Within the New Testament, our God has set forth another example by killing a couple because they were lying about their Church donations (they forgot our God is omniscient).


In Acts 5:1 to 11, it describes how a couple, Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of real estate. They gave part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full proceeds from the sale, NOT. Peter interpreted their act as lying to the Holy Ghost, aka God, then our God killed Ananias on the spot!


Three hours later, Sapphira repeated the lie to Peter, bad move, he cursed her and God killed her immediately. Members of the church were understandably terrified, duh. Henceforth, albeit they probably passed the collection plate more than once!


In this case, there was no need for any DNA, jury trials, defense attorneys, and the spending of the taxpayers hard earned money for trails and subsequent appeals!


We need our God to return to mete out justice swiftly, amen.


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