Proposition 34 sticks it to flawed capital punishment.
This measure would repeal the death penalty and replace it with sentencing to life without parole, which has already been done in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
Since the current death penalty law was enacted four decades ago, 900 individuals have been sentenced to death, according to the Secretary of State’s Voter Information Guide. Of these, a mere 14 were executed, 83 died prior to being executed and 75 have had their sentences reduced.
Proceedings that follow a death sentence in California can take a couple of decades to complete, during which systematic appeals waste time and taxpayers’ money.
The Daily 49er believes that these prisoners would be better off with a life sentence without parole and that the money saved would be better off staying in taxpayers’ pockets.
If Prop. 34 passes, the capital that funds security measures in the purgatory that is death row as well as the lawyers for these prisoners will be reduced by tens of millions of dollars annually.
Although those who commit serious crimes would no longer be sentenced to death in the literal sense, their fate would be secured in a less expensive sentence – without the possibility of release – that will undoubtedly end in death. For this reason, we at the Daily 49er support a straightforward prison and sentencing system, and a “yes” vote on Prop. 34.
