CALIFORNIA DEATH PENALTY RULED CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT

U.S District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled Wednesday in effect that California’s death penalty is unconstitutional because the condemned linger on death row for decades, thereby subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment

Judge Carney, based in Orange County, acted on the petition of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who has been on death since 1995 after having been convicted of the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s mother. The rape and murder occurred only 10 months after Jones was paroled on a previous rape conviction.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Carney said the state’s death penalty has created long delays and uncertainty for inmates, most of whom will never be executed.

He noted that more than 900 people have been sentenced to death in California since 1978 but only 13 have been executed.

“For the rest, the dysfunctional administration of California’s death penalty system has resulted, and will continue to result, in an inordinate and unpredictable period of delay preceding their actual execution,” Carney wrote.

Carney, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said the delays have created a “system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed,” Carney said.

In overturning Jones’ death sentence, Carney noted that the inmate faced “complete uncertainty as to when, or even whether” he will be

The “random few” who will be executed “will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary,” Carney said.

“No rational person,” Carney wrote, “can question that the execution of an individual carries with it the solemn obligation of the government to ensure that the punishment is not arbitrarily imposed and that it furthers the interests of society.”

Bob Walsh says the judge ruled the California death penalty unconstitutional because we never actually kill anybody.

Judge Carney has got it all wrong. Instead of declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, he should have sanctioned the attorneys who are responsible for the never-ending appeals filed by the opponents of capital punishment in the face of overwhelming evidence showing their clients guilty as charged. And Judge Carney should also have sanctioned the judges who keep ruling in
favor of those frivolous appeals.

One can only hope that Carney’s decision will be overturned, that is if Attorney General Kamala D. Harris even bothers to appeal.