Official title : Death Penalty. Initiative Statute.
Summary :
- Repeals death penalty and replaces it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole, and they must work while in prison with their wages subject to deductions to be applied to any victim restitution fines or orders against them.
- Directs $100 million to law enforcement agencies for investigations of homicide and rape cases, paid over the next 4 years (SAFE California Fund).
Notes:
- Inmates are currently required to work. Change is that this would require every person found guilty of murder to work and have their pay deducted for any debts they owe to victims of crime.
- Any death penalty verdict is automatically appealed to the CA Supreme Court. Current death penalty appeals would move from the CA Supreme Court to Court of Appeal or Superior Court.
- Annual savings for trials estimated at $100M annually.
- First degree murder with special circumstances is the only crime where the death penalty is applicable.
- Since the current death penalty law was enacted in California in 1978, around 900 individuals have received a death sentence. Of these, 14 have been executed, 83 have died prior to being executed, and about 75 have had their sentences reduced by the courts. As of July 2012, California had 725 offenders in state prison who were sentenced to death.