By the California Catholic Conference
September 2012

Proposition 34 repeals the death penalty as maximum punishment for persons found guilty of murder and replaces it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole. This repeal applies retroactively to persons already sentenced to death. The initiative also creates $100 million fund to be distributed to law enforcement agencies. The California Catholic Conference endorses Proposition 34.

Since reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States, 139 innocent men and women have been freed from death row. Only 13 people have been executed in California since 1967, and no one since 2006, In fact, California’s death row inmates are more likely to die of old age or illness than execution. By replacing the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole, California taxpayers save as much as $1 billion in five years. That money could be better spent on law enforcement and our schools.

Download a bulletin insert providing analysis of Proposition 34. (There is also a version of this insert available in Spanish.)

Download a bulletin insert providing a reflection on Proposition 34 in light of church teaching.

 This article first appeared in CMN’s September 2012 newsletter.

Hay una versión en espanol de este recurso.