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California Capital Punishment Needs Costly Overhaul, Panel Says

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"Capital punishment in California is too flawed to be

effective and is crippled by an appeals backlog that

delays punishment for crimes, said a state Senate-

appointed panel 's report quoted by the Sacramento

Bee. The California Commission on the Fair

Administration of Justice reported yesterday on the

death penalty, the first official review of the practice

since it was reinstated in 1978. The state's death-

penalty system must undergo a multimillion-dollar

upgrade - an investment that voters must weigh in

on - to lessen the nation's longest time between

conviction and execution, the panel said.

Alternatives the commission offered were to narrow

the field of defendants eligible for the death penalty or

to abolish it. Both measures would ignite controversy,

but would potentially save rather than cost money.

Keeping someone on death row costs $92,000

annually above the cost of a year at a maximum-

security state prison. The cost of appeals can be three

times the cost of the original trial. At least 70 percent

of death-row judgments that are appealed to the state

high court result in new hearings, with ineffective

counsel the typical reason."

Sacramento Bee - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001gt1d6KANc0fhcX50XQwm9-VpyYbJ2J6yk46j6L4b1rUhZnApXuZTpV_v5uR9dGeCnyh4AUjzW-dBS3MXmPIJsV2AGUP8kngto4Hg6ku_dAtUt1NBjneDzqSOGEzpEdEKnd824SQUD-sDx6awsIlUxQ==

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 01, 2008 (boomark / email).