CA SUPREMES MAY ASHCAN THE DEATH PENALTY

by Bob Walsh

There is at this moment a very real possibility that the Supreme Court of the formerly great state of California may totally overturn the death penalty in CA and flush death row into G P.

CA has over 700 condemned prisoners.  There has not been an execution in CA in 16 years.  The God-Emperor, Gavin Newsom, has put a moratorium on capital punishment in the state and has ordered the death chamber to be physically disassembled (despite two votes of the people in the last 12 years to keep capital punishment and one vote to streamline death penalty review).

At question is whether or not judges are tweaking things to get death penalty verdicts.  The law requires a unanimous verdict for the death penalty with agreement from the trial judge for the death penalty to be inflicted.  The beef is that the jury often does not agree on the reasoning for the penalty, only that the penalty should be imposed.  The governor and the DAs in LA and SF think this is mean.  

The State Supreme Court has upheld 22 of the last 25 death penalty verdicts in the state, most of those by unanimous vote.  An appeal to the state supreme court is mandatory in death penalty cases in CA and can not be waived by the defendant.  This often takes years as there are few lawyers certified for this task and the pay for doing the work is somewhat meager.