NOT MUCH DEATH ON DEATH ROW

Death row is an expensive sham
By Kelvin Wade
February 10, 2011

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel toured the new execution chamber at San Quentin Prison. It's the one you spent $900,000 building because critics said the old one was cramped, had lighting problems and other problems that amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in the mind of the judge. The judge halted executions five years ago.

Now comes word that six inmates will sue because the old U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in executions, no longer makes it. California has purchased the drug from a British manufacturer and inmates' attorneys will argue the FDA hasn't approved the European-made replacement. They're seriously going to argue that the European-made death penalty drug may not be safe?

This would all be funny if it wasn't a kick to the stomach of the families of murder victims awaiting justice and a fleecing of California taxpayers.

It's time California abolishes capital punishment. Don't misunderstand. I've got no moral objection to the death penalty. I'd like to see every single person on death row executed and I don't care whether it's gas, electricity, lethal injection or guillotine.

But capital punishment is a joke in California.

Studies have shown there are inequities in capital punishment sentences. Blacks and the poor are more likely to end up on death row, especially if the victim is white. There's no question that capital punishment, if applied, needs to be applied in a race- and class-neutral manner.

But the reason capital punishment should be abolished is that it is an expensive boondoggle in California. It's a sham.

It costs us more to prosecute capital cases than to give someone life without parole. According to John Van de Kamp, former attorney general, who chaired the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, capital cases typically cost $500,000 more to prosecute. Then there are extra security costs for death row inmates, as well as appeals. Shutting down death row could save us $1 billion over five years.

Plus, the state is poised to spend millions to build a new death row because our current one is too old and too small.

California's capital punishment system is cruel and unusual punishment for the families of the victims and citizens of the state. It's perverted that killers such as Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker; Polly Klaas' killer, Richard Allen Davis; and notorious serial killer Charles Ng still sit on death row. Ramirez was sentenced to death 22 years ago.

There are currently more than 700 people on death row in California. The average time between sentence and death is 20 years. The leading cause of death on death row is natural causes. The second leading cause of death is suicide.

Who are we kidding? What are the odds Scott Peterson is ever going to receive a lethal injection?

Many Fairfielders would've wanted Matt Garcia's killers to end up on death row. But it would be a sick joke because their date with the executioner would probably never arrive.

So let's lock these dirtbags up for life without parole and save the money we're wasting on this sick Kabuki Theater. Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: I'm just unmoved by the usual arguments against the death penalty. People say that the Western world has abolished it and by having it we're in the ranks of countries like Iran, China, Saudi Arabia...I don't have a problem with that. My goal isn't to see how European we can make the U.S.

Opponents say it's not justice, it's retribution. To me, retribution is part of justice. And some people commit crimes that are so heinous it calls for the ultimate sanction. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was convicted of 13 murders, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and numerous burglaries. In 2009, after being on death row for 20 years, his DNA matched a cold case: the murder of a 9 year old girl. There's no telling how many other people this guy murdered. I don't want to pay for his corn flakes in the morning. I'd rather pay for the drugs that will stop his heart.

No, it doesn't bring victims back, but neither does incarceration.

It drives me crazy when judges do things like rule lethal injection unconstitutional because an inmate might feel pain if the anesthesia wear off and they suffocate. Somehow we've got it into our heads that if ANY pain is involved in an execution, it's a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Really? Executions have to be painless? Since when? We shouldn't torture them but if they experience some disco......shit, I'm too worked up to go on.

With it being applied unfairly, that does resonate. I don't want people getting the death penalty because of their race, social status or race of the victim.

BUT, the bottom line is our system is a joke. Even before the moratorium, we were executing at a snail's pace. We have capital punishment in theory, not in practice. No sense paying for a system we don't have or rarely use.