Reuters: U.S.: California measure to repeal death penalty qualifies for ballot

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California measure to repeal death penalty qualifies for ballot Apr 24th 2012, 01:56 LOS ANGELES | Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:56pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state's death penalty after activists collected the more than half a million signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot, the Secretary of State's office said on Monday. The ballot initiative, which focuses on the high cost of the death penalty, would abolish capital punishment as the maximum sentence in murder convictions and replace it with life imprisonment. The move was estimated to save the state money in the "high tens of millions of dollars annually," according to an estimate of the fiscal impact of the bill that is included in the text of the measure. The 723 current inmates already on California's death row would have their sentences commuted. The state has carried out only 13 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. "It's unusual and could be historic. I don't think any state has removed the death penalty through referendum since the 1960s. That was Oregon. They reinstated it," said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director. "In most states it's a legislative process," he added. The ballot measure was approved as a growing number of states question the use of the death penalty, and comes less than two weeks after Connecticut lawmakers voted to repeal the death penalty there. California, if voters decide to repeal the law, could join 17 other states and the District of Columbia without capital punishment, assuming the Connecticut law goes into effect. Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey all voted to abolish the death penalty in recent years, and New York's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004. Other state legislatures are considering bills to end the death penalty, and Oregon's governor has said he would halt all executions on his watch. In addition to abolishing the death penalty, the California measure would also create a $100 million fund to be distributed to law enforcement agencies to help solve more homicide and rape cases. It would also require convicted murderers to work in prison, and would apply their wages to any victim restitution fines or orders against them. A spokesman for California Governor Jerry Brown could not immediately be reached for comment. Groups that have traditionally backed the death penalty in California could also not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting By Cynthia Johnston, Dan Whitcomb and Emmett Berg; Editing by Dan Burns and Eric Walsh) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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