POLL: Support For Death Penalty Hits New Low In California

California Governor Gavin Newsom made headlines a few weeks ago when he announced a moratorium on the death penalty in the state along with the dismantling of the death chamber in San Quentin. Since California voters have rejected ballot measures twice in the last decade (and as recently as November 2016) to end the state's death penalty the media characterized the move as "thwarting" the will of the populace. However, new polling shows that Gov. Newsom may be more in line with public opinion in California than expected. According to the Public Policy Institute of California's March 2019 poll, voters approve of mandatory life without parole to the death penalty by a 58% to 38% margin, and when you expand to include all Californians (not just voters) support for the death penalty falls to 31%. The only  demographic group where support for the death penalty has increased is Republicans, with support at 64% while Democrats are at 21% and Independents at 36%. Thank Zeus we have so few Republicans in Deep Blue California their share of the electorate is low and falling and their impact on public policy is negligible!

Hat/tip to CalMatters

Washington State Supreme Court Abolishes Death Penalty!

There are now twenty states that do not have the death penalty! Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court declared that state's death penalty unconstitutional in State v. Gregory, saying:

The death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and raciallybiased manner. While this particular case provides an opportunity to specificallyaddress racial disproportionality, the underlying issues that underpin our holding are rooted in the arbitrary manner in which the death penalty is generally administered. As noted by appellant, the use of the death penalty is unequally applied—sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant. The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal; thus, it violates article I, section 14 of our state constitution.

The ruling is based entirely on the State constitution so it is not appealable to, or dependent on, the United States Supreme Court.

Hat/tip to ACLU

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Mormons Trying To Influence Ballot Measures in Western States (AZ,CO,CA,NV)

The Mormon Church notoriously (and somewhat disastrously) got involved with a California ballot measure in 2008 called Proposition 8 that purported to amend the United States California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage that was eventually struck down in a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 26, 2013. has decided that it didn't learn its lesson 8 years ago and is getting involved in opposing a series of ballot measures involving social issues in various West Coast states.

The Deseret News reports:

The LDS Church's First Presidency is asking the faith's members in four western states to oppose bills that would legalize doctor-assisted suicide and recreational marijuana use.
Church President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors sent a letter Wednesday to Mormons in Colorado, where Proposition 106 would legalize physician-assisted suicide. 

"We urge church members to let their voices be heard in opposition to measures that would legalize physician-assisted suicide," said the letter signed by President Monson, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who make up the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

They sent a similar letter Wednesday to Mormons in Arizona, California and Nevada about marijuana legislation.
"We urge church members to let their voices be heard in opposition to the legalization of recreational marijuana use," the letter said.

The Mormon Church does not get involved in political issues very often (which is one reason their involvement in the Proposition 8 fight over same-sex marriage was so striking) so it is noteworthy that they are urging their adherents in California, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada to follow the Church's leadership instead of voting their conscience in these particular matters. It's also interesting that the LDS Church did not weigh in on Proposition 62 (abolish death penalty) and Proposition 66 (maintain death penalty) in California.

Nebraska Eliminates Death Penalty By Overriding Governor's Veto!

Wow! Big progressive news out of the state of Nebraska today (there's a sentence you don't see every day!) with the elimination of the death penalty by the legislature overriding the Governor's veto of a bill.

GRAPHIC: Every Execution In The U.S. In One Chart

Hat/tip to Time magazine.

Maryland Becomes 18th State To End Death Penalty!

A little more than one year after passing a bill to enact marriage equality, Maryland has now enacted a law ending the death penalty in the state, becoming the 18th in the country, and more importantly the 6th in 6 years, to do so. Last year, Connecticut ended the death penalty in that blue state (which also has marriage equality).

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the 18 states without the death penalty are:

Alaska (1957) Connecticut** (2012) Hawaii (1957) Illinois (2011) Iowa (1965) Maine (1887) Maryland*** (2013) Massachusetts (1984)

Michigan (1846) Minnesota (1911) New Jersey (2007) New Mexico* (2009) New York (2007)# North Dakota (1973) Rhode Island (1984)^ Vermont (1964)

West Virginia (1965) Wisconsin (1853) ALSO Dist. of Columbia (1981)

It's interesting that 8 of the 10 states that have enacted marriage equality are on this list, with only Washington and New Hampshire missing.

There was a bill to repeal Delaware's death penalty that died in committee recently. DPIC reports that there are seven states that do have the death penalty which have not executed a person within the last 10 years. The federal government, which does have the death penalty, has not executed anyone since March 18, 2003.

Maryland Is 18th State To Abolish Death Penalty!

IT'S OFFICIAL!! Maryland House of Delegates has just voted to END the death penalty! The legislation was... fb.me/H2kn2Bq4
— DPFocus (@DPFocus) March 15, 2013

Great news! The Maryland legislature has just completed passage of a bill that will end the death penalty in the state.

By a vote of 82 to 56, the House agreed to replace capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole. It approved the measure a week after the Senate passed the bill.

Governor Martin O'Malley, who has pledged to sign the bill into law, will decide the fate of the five men currently on Maryland's death row.

The bill was O'Malley's second attempt to overturn capital punishment since 2009. When he introduced the legislation in January, he said the death penalty was expensive and did not work.

"Year after year, states which have a death penalty have actually had a higher murder rate than states which do not have a death penalty," he said.

Maryland will become the 18th state in the United States to abolish the death penalty.

Godless Wednesday: 7 Countries That Kill Atheists

Did you know there are seven countries in the world where they kill atheists? These countries have laws on the books that can lead to the death of someone who declares that they do not believe in God: Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan.

The Washington Post discusses the details of an agnostic who may be killed for his (non)belief in Saudi Arabia:

Earlier this year, a 23-year-old Saudi man named Hamza Kashgari tweeted in commemoration of the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday that, while he found the Islamic holy man inspirational, he did not believe in his divinity. When Kashgari was accused of blasphemy, he attempted to flee the country for his life, it turns out rightly. He was arrested while changing flights in Malaysia, deported back to Saudi Arabia, and is now awaiting charges that could include his execution for blasphemy and atheism.

Oh well, I guess I won't be going to see the Duba Duty Free Open anytime soon, after all. And the Maldives are supposed to be beautiful, but their policies on religious freedom are not!

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist.

GRAPHIC: Why CA Should End Death Penalty (And Vote Yes on Prop. 34)

This graphic sums up a lot of the reason why I and millions of other Californians are voting YES ON PROP 34 to end the death penalty in my state.

Saturday Politics: Great Resource on CA Propositions

The above image is a screen shot from CaliforniaChoices.org, a very useful resource for California voters who are contemplating how to vote on the 11 ballot propositions on the 2012 general election ballot. I just selected the postions of the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Bay Guardian and San Diego Union-Tribune but you can customize it how you like. I also included the positions of the California Democratic Party and the California Republican Party. There's a whole other option of  selecting the positions from various unions as well.

One weird feature of the website is that it doesn't allow you to add your own choices in the red/green comparison table, although it does allow you to share your choices via social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest.

If you are a California voter I strongly encourage you to use CaliforniaChoices.org to find out more about the ballot propositions to help you make your decisions. You can also see my own positions on the 2012 California ballot propositions:

Good luck, and happy voting!

POLL: Prop. 34 (Death Penalty Repeal) Now Ahead

Good news! As a longtime member of Amnesty International, I have long been opposed to the death penalty, viewing it as a barbaric and archaic exercise of state power that discriminates against racial and ethnic minorities and expensively fails to positively address the problem of violent crime. Most "civilized" countries in the world have already abolished the death penalty but large majorities in the United States continue to support the bizarre practice of killing people to send the message that killing people is wrong.

Thus I have been quite pleased to see Proposition 34 qualifiy for the 2012 California ballot and have closely followed its progress of this measure which would replace the death penalty in California with life in prison without parole instead.

Previous polls by The Los Angeles Times from late September shows that Proposition 34 was behind (38% yes, 51% No) but a new poll from the same group shows that support for "justice that works" has surged:

Forty-two percent said they would vote for Proposition 34, with 45% saying no. In September, the gap was 38% to 51%, a 13-point difference. A significant 12% of respondents said they did not know how they would vote, nearly identical to the 11% who had not decided last month. 

[...] 

When voters heard more information about Proposition 34, such as its financial ramifications and details of the effect on prisoners, responses flipped: 45% were in favor and 42% against — still very close to the survey's margin of error, which is 2.9 percentage points. 

[...] 

Proposition 34 would apply retroactively to condemned inmates, require convicted murderers to work in prison and contribute to victim restitution funds, and direct $100 million to law enforcement over four years. It could save the state as much as $130 million a year, according to California's nonpartisan legislative analyst. 

California has more than 727 inmates on death row, the most in the nation. Since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1978, 13 inmates have been put to death and many more have died of old age, other natural causes or suicide. Court rulings have prevented executions for six years. 

Supporters contend that the system is broken and wasteful, with the state spending tens of millions of dollars each year on capital trials and appeals. They argue that DNA-based exonerations across the nation demonstrate that innocent people remain at risk of being executed.

The exciting news about this poll is that it shows movement toward the passage of Proposition 34 even before the yes campaign had started airing its television ads in support of death penalty repeal. The Yes side has far more money than the No side, but the conventional wisdom is that a ballot measure needs to be well-over 50% heading into election day because Undecided's tend to break heavily to the "No" side to maintain the status quo when they are unclear or uncertain about the effect of the initiative's passage would be.

One could make the argument that the ballot measure on the death penalty is different from other issues since most people know where they stand and they know the issues involved (one could make a similar argument regarding ballot measures on marriage equality at this point in time as well).

We shall find out what happens on November 6th! It would be great if the largest state in the Union took a decisive step towards ending the death penalty on that day.

LA TIMES: Prop 36 Leads, Prop 34 Lags

The Los Angeles Times has released polling on the two criminal justice-related ballot measures on the 2012 ballot in California which demonstrates that Proposition 34 is unlikely to pass while Proposition 36 is very likely to do so. Prop. 34 is a measure to abolish the death penalty in California and convert all death sentences to life-in-prison-without-parole while Prop. 36 while reform the 1994 three-strikes ballot measure to mandate that the third strike must be a serious or violent felony.

In a poll conducted of registered voters from September 17-23, 2012 with a margin of error of ±2.9 percentage points, the results show that 51% are likely to vote No on Prop. 34 while 38% are likely to vote yes with 11% saying they "don't know" how they'll vote. On Proposition 36, an astonishing 66% say that they will vote Yes while only 20% say they will vote No with 14% saying they "don't know."

The poll results come as voters ponder a pair of ballot measures that, if approved, would make dramatic changes to the state's criminal justice system.

Support for an initiative that aims to replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole is trailing 38% to 51%, the poll found. But that gap narrows to a statistical dead heat when voters learn that Proposition 34 also requires convicted killers to work while in prison, directs their earnings to their victims and earmarks $100 million for police to solve murders and rapes.

Despite voters' ambivalence over capital punishment, a ballot measure seeking to amend the three-strikes law is attracting strong support from a broad cross section, including conservatives. Proposition 36 takes aim at what critics of three strikes call its unfairest feature by changing the law so that offenders whose third strikes were relatively minor, such as shoplifting or drug possession, could no longer be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Last week I reported on the results from a Field Poll which showed that the No votes on Proposition 34 was a plurality (45%) but that the difference was within the margin of error, with 42% saying they wanted to vote Yes to abolish the death penalty.

It will be interesting to see if either one of Prop. 34 or 36 actually passes on election day. I know I will be voting yes on both measures and I hope everyone I know does as well!

Field Poll: CA Death Penalty Repeal Initiative Close

The Field Poll is the most trusted name in California polling. They are currently polling the 11 pending ballot measures which will be decided on election day and releasing the results periodically. Proposition 34 is one that I am following closely, since it would abolish the abhorrent and wasteful practice of the state of California executing its citizens, replacing the death penalty with a less expensive and more humane Life Without Parole system.

The latest Field Poll says that 45% of likely voters oppose Proposition 34 with 42% supporting it. (The margin of error in the poll is ±4.3 points.) This is not a good sign, since the conventional wisdom is that ballot measures typically need to be polling well over 50% in order more than a month before voting happens in order to survive the general bias of voters to reject propositions, especially in the face of an expensive television ad campaign aimed at raising doubts. But Proposition 34 may have a different fate than convention wisdom would indicate because 1) proponents have a huge cash advantage (possibly as high as 10:1) and 2) Most Californians have a pretty fixed view of their opinion about the death penalty and are unlikely to be swayed by a television ad campaign on this matter. In fact, Field goes on to explain in their polling memo on Proposition 34 that it is only very recently that there were pluralities in California that supported life without parole over the death penalty since only recently did people understand how expensive financially the implementation of the death penalty is. It typically takes 25 years from the time a convicted criminal is sentenced to death row that an execution occurs in California. This is due to the fact that every single Capital case must go through the California Supreme Court at some point (and of course there's also the federal court system to consider as well).

By looking at the internals of the polling memo, one good sign is that a majority of Democrats (50%-37%) and Independents (54%-33%) support the measure. (Of course nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose ending the death penalty since even though Republicans generally hate government, they still think it should have the power to execute its citizens. Go figure!) Since together Democrats and Independents will be a significant majority of the electorate as Republicans are fast becoming an irrelevant party in the state,  Proposition 34  still has a reasonable chance of passing. It's also a pretty good sign that the undecided vote is pretty evenly distributed among the parties.

I'll be giving periodic updates on the state of Proposition 34 as the election gets closer. That and Proposition 36 (which would reform our state's infamous "three-strikes and you're out" law) are two very important measures to rein in the prison-industrial complex in California.

Saturday Politics: CA Ballot Propositions Preview

These are the qualified ballot measures California voters will be considering on November 6, 2012, thanks to Calitics:

Proposition 30              Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. The Governor's Tax Measure would bring in billions of dollars for education and public services.

Proposition 31              State Budget. State and Local Government. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Restricts the budgeting process to a "pay as you go" formula through an unnecessarily strict and inflexible process

Proposition 32              Prohibits Political Contributions by Payroll Deduction. Prohibitions on Contributions to Candidates. Initiative Statute. Right-wing attempt to go after labor, yet again. We've said no twice already, we need to say NO, NO, NO!

Proposition 33              Changes Law to Allow Auto Insurance Companies to Set Prices Based on a Driver's History of Insurance Coverage. Initiative Statute. Mercury Insurance measure to change loyalty discounts.

Proposition 34              Death Penalty Repeal. Initiative Statute Repeals death penalty.

Proposition 35              Human Trafficking. Penalties. Sex Offender Registration. Initiative Statute. Former AG candidate Chris Kelly helped to get this on the ballot, it would further strengthen laws against sex offenders.

Proposition 36              Three Strikes Law. Sentencing for Repeat Felony Offenders. Initiative Statute. Reforms wasteful 3 strikes sentencing measure.

Proposition 37              Genetically Engineered Foods. Mandatory Labeling. Initiative Statute. Would require labeling of GMOs.

Proposition 38              Tax for Education and Early Childhood Programs. Initiative Statute. Munger tax initiative dedicated to public education. Flat income tax boost.

Proposition 39              Tax Treatment for Multistate Businesses. Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Funding. Initiative Statute. Changes a tax provision of a budget from a few years back. Would use revenue to fund clean energy projects.

Proposition 40              Redistricting. State Senate Districts. Referendum. GOP temper tantrum gone awry. Could invalidate the State Senate Maps.

The above comments on the propositions were made by Brian Leubitz. Generally, I agree with Brian's views on the propositions, and will probably be voting YES on 30, 34, 35, 36, 37 and NO on 31, 32, 33, 38 and 39.

What about you?

GRAPHIC: Death Penalty Across the United States

The Economist analyzed every single execution that has occurred in the United States since 1977 and produced this handy-dandy graphic reproduced above. As I noted when I blogged about Connecticut becoming the 17th state to repeal the death penalty earlier this year, the data shows that  more than one-third of all people executed in this country have occurred in the state that gave the world Governor Rick Perry and Governor George W. Bush: Texas.

Hat/tip to Think Progress

CT Legislature Abolishes Death Penalty!

Connecticut will become the 17th state in the United States, and the fifth in the last five years (Illinois in 2011 , New Mexico in 2009 and New Jersey in 2007), to abolish the death penalty in favor of life without parole after a vote in the State legislature on Wednesday night.

The bill, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has pledged to sign, advanced after a 9 1/2-hour debate focused largely on a provision that still mandates capital punishment for Connecticut's 11 death row inmates.  

The bill passed 86-62, with votes from 78 of 99 Democrats and eight of 52 Republicans. Senate Democrats passed the bill 20-16 last week, with two Democrats joining all 14 Republicans in opposition.

This is great news! The death penalty costs more money, is applied in a racially discriminatory way, does not deter crime and is logically (and ethically) indefensible. Let's hope Californians recognize this and vote to pass the End the Death Penalty Initiative in November 2012 to become the 18th state to bar the practice.

The New York Times notes that since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 1289 executions have occurred in the United States, with 935 in the seven states along the Southern U.S. border with Texas accounting for a whopping 481 executions by itself. The only states in the Northeastern U.S. which still allows state-sanctioned killing are Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

Initiative To Abolish Death Penalty On CA Ballot

Interesting news! For the third time in 40 years, Californians will vote on whether they would like to abolish the state's death penalty, converting all capital sentences to life in prison without parole. Thanks to a new law signed by Governor Brown, all ballot measures must appear on November statewide general elections, not primary elections.

This will be the first time in over 20 years that Californians will be able to vote on the death penalty, which is has not been in effect since 2006 due to a court order.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Opponents of capital punishment said Thursday they were submitting 800,000 signatures on petitions for an initiative to close the nation's largest Death Row, which has 725 condemned prisoners. The measure needs 504,760 valid signatures to make the ballot.

"California voters are ready to replace the death penalty with life in prison with no chance of parole," declared Jeanne Woodford, who oversaw four executions as warden of San Quentin State Prison. She now heads the anti-capital-punishment group Death Penalty Focus.

It was an unusually optimistic statement in a state whose residents have consistently supported the death penalty. The most recent Field Poll, in September, showed 68 percent support - although respondents in the same survey, when asked their preferred sentence for murder, backed life without parole over death, 48 to 40 percent.

MadProfessah has long been an opponent of capital punishment, not only because of its racially discriminatory application (Black people who kill white people are much more likely to get the death penalty than white people who kill black people) but due to the principle that the legal system can never be 100% accurate and the state should not kill people to show that killing people is wrong. I have been a member of Amnesty International since college, and it works to eliminate the death penalty around the world.

Looking forward to vote YES to eliminate the death penalty and replace it with a much more cost-effective life without parole. I hope all MadProfessah.com readers will join me in voting YES on this ballot measure!

Illinois Becomes 16th State To Abolish Death Penalty

Illinois abolished the death penalty this week when Democratic Governor Pat Quinn signed SB 3539 into law, which was passed by the state legislature in January. There are now 16 states (not even 1/3 of the Union) which do not have their ability to waste money to kill their own citizens, regardless of the criminal conviction.

The New York Times reported:

Dozens of family members of victims had signed a letter to the legislature supporting the bill, arguing that capital trials and appeals “drag victims’ loved ones through an agonizing and lengthy process, which often does not result in the intended punishment.”


The current and future mayors of Chicago took different sides, with Mayor Richard M. Daley supporting capital punishment, and Rahm Emanuel, who will became mayor this spring, saying the ban was the right thing to do.


Illinois joins a wave of states that have reconsidered capital punishment. New Jersey abolished the practice in 2007. The New Mexico Legislature ended the death penalty in 2009. New Mexico’s newly elected governor, Susana Martinez, a Republican, has asked the Legislature to reinstate it, though bills to do so have stalled. The Connecticut legislature voted to abolish the penalty last year, but the governor at the time, M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, vetoed the measure.

Governor Quinn issued a statement:

Since the General Assembly passed this bill, I have met or heard from a wide variety of people on both sides of the issue. I have talked with prosecutors, judges, elected officials, religious leaders from around the world, families of murder victims, people on death row who were exonerated and ordinary citizens who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me. Their experiences, words and opinions have made a tremendous impact on my thinking, and I thank everyone who reached out on this matter.


After their guidance, as well as much thought and reflection, I have concluded that our system of imposing the death penalty is inherently flawed. The evidence presented to me by former prosecutors and judges with decades of experience in the criminal justice system has convinced me that it is impossible to devise a system that is consistent, that is free of discrimination on the basis of race, geography or economic circumstance, and that always gets it right.


As a state, we cannot tolerate the executions of innocent people because such actions strike at the very legitimacy of a government. Since 1977, Illinois has seen 20 people exonerated from death row. Seven of those were exonerated since the moratorium was imposed in 2000. That is a record that should trouble us all. To say that this is unacceptable does not even begin to express the profound regret and shame we, as a society, must bear for these failures of justice.


Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it. With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case. For the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or release.


I have found no credible evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on the crime of murder and that the enormous sums expended by the state in maintaining a death penalty system would be better spent on preventing crime and assisting victims’ families in overcoming their pain and grief.


To those who say that we must maintain a death penalty for the sake of the victims’ families, I say that it is impossible not to feel the pain of loss that all these families share or to understand the desire for retribution that many may hold. But, as I heard from family members who lost loved ones to murder, maintaining a flawed death penalty system will not bring back their loved ones, will not help them to heal and will not bring closure to their pain. Nothing can do that. We must instead devote our resources toward the prevention of crime and the needs of victims’ families, rather than spending more money to preserve a flawed system.

As a long-standing member of Amnesty International, I say "Congratulations!" to Illinois. Governor Quinn has now signed into law death penalty abolition and civil unions enactment. The state is becoming a more progressive by leaps and bounds.