California’s history with the death penalty stretches all the way back to 1872, when it was first authorized in the state’s penal code. Although the state Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court also did so, there was only a five-year hiatus before the state legislature overrode Governor Jerry Brown’s veto and reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Over the past three decades, the number of death-eligible crimes has risen through various referenda.
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1974, California has executed only 13 inmates. However, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has the largest death row in the United States, with over 700 persons awaiting execution. Abolition efforts in California are comprised of many collaborating organizations.
Eighty percent of executions in California have been for those convicted of killing whites, while only 27.6 percent of murder victims are white. Furthermore, those who murder whites are over four times more likely to be sentenced to death in California than those who kill Latinos, and over three times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill African-Americans.
CMN State Spotlight – December 2010
“The California Catholic Conference, the official public policy voice of the Bishops, issued a statement on September 28, 2010, just days before an execution was scheduled (an execution that was subsequently halted).”
