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The Human Rights Cause
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Loading...Budget Woes Have Sparked the Decline of the Death Penalty
In March, New Mexico took the historic step of replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment—making it the fifteenth state to abandon capital punishment and the second state to do so legislatively in the last two years. New Jersey’s legislature passed a similar bill in December 2007. In signing the legislation, New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson cited the extraordinarily costs of retaining the death penalty and the more than 130 inmates freed from death row since 1973 due to wrongful conviction. He stated, “The sad truth is the wrong person can still be convicted in this day and age, and in cases where that conviction carries with it the ultimate sanction, we must have ultimate confidence, I would say certitude, that the system is without flaw or prejudice. Unfortunately, this is demonstrably not the case.”
At least ten other states have considered similar measures this year citing the significant savings that could result from ending the death penalty: Montana, Nebraska, Illinois, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Kansas are among them. Just weeks ago, Connecticut’s legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, although Governor Jodi Rell vetoed it.
Also this year, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley called on his state’s legislature to end the death penalty citing both financial and ethical concerns. In response, the Maryland legislature passed a bill making it extremely difficult to seek the death penalty—stopping just short of outright abolition. Governor O’Malley praised the legislation and indicated that it was a step in the right direction.
In California, several state legislators including Senator Mark Leno and Assemblyman Jared Huffman have called for an end to the death penalty. Both legislators have cited the state’s budget crisis as a good reason to consider getting rid of capital punishment. In a recent op-ed for the Marin Independent Journal, Senator Leno argued, “We are cutting the very programs that help reduce violent crime and without them, violent crime may well increase. Meanwhile, we continue to waste more than $250 million on an ineffective and broken death penalty, and it’s a price we can no longer afford. For Californians who want to live in safe and healthy communities, the answer is clear. The time has come to replace the death penalty with permanent imprisonment.”
In a March interview with Marin Magazine, Assemblyman Huffman came to a similar conclusion, “It’s time to seriously reconsider the death penalty—it makes no sense from any angle you approach it. It’s hard to make the case it deters anyone from crime. It’s even harder to make the case we can afford it. In so many ways, it is absolutely ridiculous.”
Recent polling shows that California voters are likely to agree with them.
In June 2008, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice found that California annually spends approximately $137.7 million dollars on the death penalty. By replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment, the Commission noted that the state could save in excess of $125 million per year. The California State Legislature also doled out an additional $136 million this year for a new death row housing facility–for which the total project budget is expected to reach $400 million.
The State of California could save $1 billion dollars in five years by converting the sentences of the nearly 680 persons currently on death row to sentences of life without the possibility of parole and by suspending all new death sentences for a period of five years. This would also allow the legislature to consider selling the prime real estate currently occupied by San Quentin State Prison for an estimated $2 billion dollars—a goal that has gained the support of both Democrats and Republicans, including Senator Jeff Denham from Merced.
This country’s fiscal crisis has made one thing certain: the death penalty’s days are numbered. When that happens, the United States will finally join the vast majority of countries—135 and counting—that have abandoned capital punishment. For opponents of the death penalty, that day can’t come soon enough.
Read more: budget, capital punishment, cost, death penalty, human rights, innocent, wrongful conviction
Alex Madonik, use granted to Death Penalty Focus.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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+ add your ownKILL THE DEATH PENALTY.
WE DEMAND FULL DISCLOSURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY for GEOEngineering and Climate manipulation that has been going on for years!!!
http://www.californiaskywatch.com
Are you aware that the government admits to the deployment of aerosolized particulates of known toxicity over America for training in military applications and other purposes? Geoengineering? Climate Control?
http://proliberty.com/observer/20080112.htm
GEOENGINEERING, CLIMATE CONTROL AND HAARP INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
www.californiaskywatch.com/documents/htmldocs/geoengineering.htm
HAARP and Beyond - Dr. Nick Begich VERY INFORMATIVE...
www.californiaskywatch.com/documents/htmldocs/geoengineering.htm
Jesse Ventura investigates HAARP
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZOt29NR0FY
"I can’ t believe that people spend time on the internet arguing about “contrails versus
chemtrails” when this has been going on openly for decades. Call it what you want, the
military has been spraying us without our permission for generations."
the full article -
http://homepage.mac.com/carolepellatt/yeswearebeingsprayed/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yrpg_br2E
See the "Contrails in the Media" section near the bottom of the page... KNBC 4 in LA, the Weather Channel, PBS
Signs of toxic chemicals used to Modify Climate showing up in drinking water??? Hmmm... on KNBC 4, LA and KTVU 2, SF Bay area...
http://www.californiaskywatch.com
Death penalty should be abolished.
so if they are in prison for the rest of their foul lives, why do we pay so much to give them medications to keep them living longer, pay for surgeries to keep them alive? Why do my taxes have to pay for them? Maybe we should find some work they can do in prison to pay for themselves. No one gives me free medication, free surgeries, free food, free clothes. They need to earn their stuff just like I do.
very moving article.
OK. Legalize pot, tax it, let non violent criminals out, keep violent thugs in prison for life and execute violent murderers.
Avis has the right idea. YES, THEY do not pay for ANYTHING and get room and board, 3 meals, entertainment, schooling, tv, sports, medical and dental care.
Glenna, you sound like you wish they could serve their time in luxury. In my opinion, they get too much already. Where is your compassion for the victims??? You must have a relative on death row or something. How can you think people who mutilate, rape, torture and bury children alive deserve anything but an immediate visit from the angel of death??
They can do the hard labor prior to their execution. In fact.....They can be used as test subjects in research facilities instead of using innocent animals. Now THAT would be paying their debt to society.
DO NOT COMMIT THE CRIME THEN..... simple.
If there are lot of criminals,that's government's fault,wrong leadership.Death penalty is violence by power.
Avis, Free room & board? If they have life w/o a chance of parole that means they are never, ever free again - until they take their final breath. I guess you think it is a picnic being locked up in a small cell everyday for the rest of your life? THERE HAVE BEEN PEOPLE EXECUTED WHOM WERE LATER PROVED INNOCENT. That makes the state who executed them just as guilty of murder as if they had pulled a trigger and ended someone's life. What about if they had to do hard labor for the rest of their life? Would that satisfy you? Too cushy? No airconditioning (Yeah, I'd like to see how long they would last with that in South TX)? That punishment enough? At least if they are serving life in prison w/o a chance of parole & you find they are innocent - you can pardon them & release them. Who appointed you judge, jury & sentencer? GOD? I don't think so.
Dear Avis,
"In your book" there are no errors, no wrongful judgements, no biased judges?
If you can be 100% certain, OK, but if not?
And another thing:
Until you are able to give life to someone who dies although he doesn't deserve death, you should be careful in dishing out death to those who "deserve" death -"in your book".
from what i read in this article, it states that its cheaper to keep a person in jail. it also states that there are also innocent people who have gotten the death penalty that were later found to be innocent. so unless youre an all-knowing god, its not justified to take someones life. im sure you yourself would mind being wrongly accused and killed. isnt that a crime? the murder of an innocent person...
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