Dealth Penalty Leaves Killers Free

Written by Sean Shealy | 31 December 2011

     Forty-six percent of homicides and an astounding seventy-six percent of rapes in California remain unsolved. Translated into raw numbers, it means in excess of 90,000 violent criminals are freely walking the streets.

     What are we doing about that? Well, for starters, we’re cutting the number of police officers, shutting down crime labs and gutting criminal investigation units. With budgets under strain, we have chosen the emotional satisfaction of endlessly prosecuting the 714 convicted murderers presently on death row – already safely removed from society – rather than finding and arresting the tens of thousands of predators loose on the street.

     There have been 13 executions in California since the death penalty was reinstated. The total amount spent on implementing the death penalty in that time has been close to $4 billion. This is an average of $304 million for each execution represented.

     By contrast, keeping those convicted of murder behind bars for life could be accomplished for a mere $11.5 million per year or a total of $379.5 million for the entire time the death penalty has been in place.

     Petitions are circulating to get an initiative on November’s ballot to fix this problem. Backed by more than 100 leaders in law enforcement, including former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, the initiative would restore the penalty for murder to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and use a portion of the savings to bolster efforts to arrest and prosecute those responsible for unsolved violent crimes.

     “My frustration is more about the fact that the death penalty does not serve any useful purpose and it's very expensive," said Garcetti.

     For others, the frustration isn’t about getting more bang for the buck, or the maximum sentence for those who took their loved ones. It’s about getting any justice at all.

     “We continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty even though it has never been proven to deter murderers, even though one thousand killers get away with murder each year,” said Aqeela Sherrills, the father of one young murder victim. “We should work toward preventing violence and getting murderers off of our streets by solving cold cases instead of executing the select few murderers who are already in prison.”

     Judy Kerr, whose brother’s murderer was never caught, agrees. “We spend so much money and focus so much attention on a few aging convicts when these resources would be better spent on law enforcement, state crime labs and investigations to bring these murderers to justice … Our pain, suffering and doubt are prolonged endlessly. Our communities remain at risk and killers roam free. The truth is California's death penalty wastes precious funds and does not deter crime.”

     The enemies of justice in opposition to this initiative are powerful and predictable. They include strutting politicians ironically wanting to appear “tough on crime,” and the prison industry itself, which is happy to maintain the status quo of housing a relative few offenders for tens of millions of dollars more than it would cost to incarcerate many. Finally, it will require overcoming the ignorance and apathy of voters.

     “We should fry ‘em all,” responded one man who refused to sign the petition with a self-satisfied grin and all of the emotional, self-defeating bravado often displayed by the ill-informed.

     The 90,000 violent criminals free on the streets certainly won’t be signing this petition either.

     Will you?