Wednesday, July 25, 2012

THE DEATH PENALTY IS A DEAD END

Did you know that since 1989, 292 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence — 17 were inmates on death row?  

Did you know that  California has spent four billion dollars on enforcing the death penalty since 1978? 

Did you know that it takes decades (if ever) after a death sentence is handed down for an execution to happen, and all the while the victims' families don't get closure?

We have a death penalty in California but you just can read the papers to see it does nothing to stop the killing. They have a death penalty in Colorado but it didn't stop the Aurora massacre or the Colombine tragedy. Executing crazies and psychopaths doesn't prevent more of them from popping up and it surely doesn't stop them from killing. There's no evidence it stops spouses from killing each other or their kids. It doesn't prevent gangsters from bumping off rivals and innocent bystanders along the way. So what's to lose?  Let's shut down this wasteful, imperfect and ineffective killing machine and still keep these criminals off the streets forever.

Prop. 34, the SAFE California Act, will replace California’s death penalty with life in prison with no chance of parole. The state doesn’t always get it right. End the risk that we will execute innocent people while making sure convicted killers will spend the rest of their miserable lives behind bars.