Sentenced to die? Depends on the county in California
A Bee analysis of death row records found that the verdicts since 2011 come from just 14 of California’s 58 counties. In each five-year period before that – going back three decades – at least 22 counties had imposed death sentences.
Prosecutors say they are weighing the decision to pursue capital punishment more carefully, considering the cost of the trials, the human toll and changing sensibilities of their constituents. The result is that the death penalty is being imposed in California at the lowest level since it was reinstated in 1978, while the vast majority of death sentences now come from a handful of counties in Southern California.
Critics argue the geographic disparity in sentencing is another consequence of the arbitrariness of the death penalty, which is susceptible to the impulses of local prosecutors who decide when to pursue capital punishment.
Ana Zamora, a criminal justice policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California who is managing the campaign against the death penalty speed-up measure, compared it to research that has found nonwhite defendants are more likely to receive death sentences, particularly if their victim is white.
“It’s very concerning that your likelihood of being sentenced to death in California has everything to do with the color of your skin and the county that you committed your crime in,” she said. “It’s unfair.”
Supporters of capital punishment counter that it must be maintained for the worst of the worst crimes: murderers who tortured or raped their victims, child killers, serial killers or those who murder police officers. Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said local control is a strength, not a weakness, of the system.
“Criminal justice policy should as much as possible reflect the community, because it’s a personal thing,” he said. “If they don’t have a say in how justice is carried out, then they begin to lose faith.” Read more >>>