Front Page  »  

California’s death row out of room

March 31, 2015

deathpenaltyWith the state tied up in litigation and about 20 newly condemned men arriving yearly, California’s death row has run out of room. [LA Times]

Currently, there are 731 men and 20 women sentenced to death in California. Most of the male death row inmates are housed at San Quentin State Prison.

San Quentin’s death row can accommodate 715 inmates, and 708 of those beds are currently occupied. As part of his current budget proposal, Governor Jerry Brown has called for spending $3.2 million to create a second death row at San Quentin.

The proposal calls for transforming 97 cells at San Quentin to death row housing. Most of the funds would go to increasing staffing, and some of the money would be used to beef up security features at the prison.

A new law that requires the state to release low-level drug offenders and thieves will allow prison officials to make room for the second death row.

Critics say the plan does nothing to address California’s long-term death row issues.

The state has not executed anyone since 2006. That year, state and federal courts barred California from using its three-drug lethal injection protocol.

California is also facing a constitutional challenge to its death penalty system. A federal judge ruled last July that the appeals process is so slow that executions have become unlikely and random.

Since 2006, California’s death row population has increased from 646 to 571.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


25 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I’ll just say what any common sense person would say: use Death Row for what it was made to do. If we as a society decide to get rid of it – again, like we did several decades ago – then we wouldn’t have this half measure called the death penalty.


0

It is time for a cull.


0

Just let them out….it was White Privileged that got them in there anyway!


0

April Fools, right?


0

Why not just eliminate the death penalty ? If one were to google “countries with death penalty”, you will see all of the despotic regimes around the world that still execute their citizens. We, the United States of America, are in such stellar company as North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, and on and on. The death penalty is NOT a deterrent, look at the scientific evidence.


Instead of converting regular prison cells into death row housing, change the sentences of all of those currently on death row to life in prison, no chance of parole ever. It will cost the taxpayers less and is more humane than eventually killing our felonious citizens.


Time for America to grow up, to mature; killing citizens via “state sanctioned murder” is backwards and vengeful, we do not gain anything by killing these prisoners.


0

Justice John Paul Stevens, a Republican appointee to the supreme court who initially supported the death penalty, would agree with you.


Late in his tenure on the court he called the death penalty “the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal

contributions to any discernible social or public purposes,” and indicated he was ready to toss it in favor of life imprisonment.


For his take after years on the bench, see:


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/oped/Justice-Stevens-death-penalty.pdf


0

I think when you have had a loved one murdered execution style, it tends to make you feel a little different about the death penalty….


0

Unless you’re an actual Christian, willing to turn the other cheek . . .


0

I honestly cannot say how I would feel if I had a loved one killed in a murder situation; death happens all the time, all of us are going to die at some point- to lose a loved one in a senseless accident would be very painful, to lose someone you love to a murderer would seem to me to be even more painful. I get that part, I really do. My question, in all seriousness to anyone who has ever lost a loved one to a murder: how does seeing (or knowing) that the person responsible for the death of your loved one has been killed bring you closure, or any sort of relief? Nothing ever done is going to change the fact that your loved one is not ever coming back, and I have to wonder if the person who died would want you to seek vengeance in their name.


If you want to argue that carrying out the death penalty is about vengeance and a blood lust to “make the killer pay”, at least you are being honest; any other argument is simply a justification for the government to kill a person, period.


And just to be clear, any time you “justify” an argument, a tactic, an action; you are excusing an action that most people would recognize as being the wrong thing to do, but is done anyway; i.e., justifiable homicide, justified officer involved shooting, so on and so on.


0

Bob, that animal killed three people that night. One man he slit his throat then raped his girlfriend right on the floor night to the man while he bled out. We are not talking about caring human beings here. Yeah I would like to see him dead, but no he’s one of the San Quentin monsters…..


0

I’m assuming that perhaps you knew one of those that was killed? I am sorry for your loss; I cannot imagine how I would feel if I were in your shoes. I am against the death penalty, period; I would like to think that I would have the same stance even if a loved one of mine were killed, especially in the gruesome manner you are describing, but I cannot honestly say that I would be strong enough to keep my convictions. That is my honesty; your’s is owning that you want to see him dead, period. I respect that you are being honest enough to admit that what you are seeking is vengeance, and I would ask you once again to consider how the person who was murdered would react. Were they the type of person who would give you permission to feel that way, or would they have steadfastly stood for a stopping of the violence, a stopping of the killing. This is what you have to ask yourself, this is what you have to live with. I cannot, I will not try to tell you that you are wrong for feeling how you do, but I refuse to offer my endorsement of state sanctioned killing of citizens, even if they are totally despicable and seemingly less than human.


I do hope you find an inner peace within yourself some day, and I do mean that with the utmost respect.


0

For all intents and purposes death row IS life in prison.

More inmates die waiting for execution than are actually put to death.


Who’s surprised the death penalty is not a deterrent?


0

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just follow the law and put them to death…..


0

ask the attorneys who drag out the process


0

Actually, it’s not. An execution ends up costing taxpayers several million dollars. Keeping someone in prison for life costs a small fraction of that. Dollars and cents says get rid of the death penalty farce and just imprison people who need to be kept out of society.


0

Just send them to SLO County jail. The kill rate here is higher than San Quentin’s death row.


0

Diamond, best comment I’ve read today..


0

Best comment I think I have EVER seen on here!!!!


0

diamond and CCN….Craigslist has a “Best of CL” Am thinking CCN needs to start one!


0

But ……but….. I am creating jobs!


0

There is a pretty easy wat to make room. Carry out the sentence. What’s the point of condemning people to death if they are dying of old age on death row?


0

“Governor Jerry Brown has called for spending $3.2 million to create a second death row at San Quentin”


Kick the can down the road…

Not surprised; that’s the Brown way…


0

That’s every politicians way. They care only about the next election cycle.


Swap the inmates for politicians. Society would be safer.


0
1 2