California: Death penalty discussion

Activist Mike Farrell (pictured) criticized "state-sponsored killing" under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an address at Pitzer College Wednesday night. Calling the governor "a coward" for "refusing to stand on principle," the former star of the television series M*A*S*H spoke to an audience of roughly 200 students and community members on behalf of the newly formed Inland Valley Death Penalty Focus.

Mr. Farrell said that the justice system is inherently flawed and occasionally condemns innocent people. "Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979, 130 death row inmates have been exonerated," he said. "Of course, we dont know how many innocent people have been killed in the history of the US under this system."

He also argued in economic terms against the death penalty. In July, the California Commission of the Fair Administration of Justice found that abolishing capital punishment would save $125 million a year. It costs an extra $90,000 per prisoner per year to hold on death row rather than in the general maximum security prison population, the commission found.

"The report has been ignored entirely by the governor," Mr. Farrell said.

With 670 prisoners on death row, the figure adds up to $63.3 million annually just to house them, he said, even though most die of natural causes or commit suicide before they are executed. California has executed 13 prisoners since 1979.

Death Penalty Focus advocates sentencing violent criminals to life in prison without the possibility of parole and channeling the extra money into prisoner rehabilitation programs, child abuse programs, enhancing law enforcement capabilities and crime labs and compensation for victims.

Mr. Farrell believes that the death penalty continues because many politicians want to appear to be tough on crime. In response to questions, Mr. Farrell said that Presidential Candidate Barack Obama privately opposes the death penalty and believes "we will move closer to the direction of abolishment of the death penalty if Obama is elected."

In an interview before the address, Mr. Farrell said Death Penalty Focus has made concrete advancements since its inception in 1986. Last year, the state of New Jersey repealed the death penalty. National opinion polls show that support for capital punishment is slowly eroding, Mr. Farrell said.

"If the death penalty will end in the United States is no longer the question," Mr. Farrell said. "It's a question of when."

2 other speakers also addressed the audience. Gloria Gillian, was wrongly accused of a crime she did not committee; an armed robbery that resulted in a death. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in her case but she was instead charged with life in prison. Her former boss was later found to be guilty of the crime but not before Ms. Gillian spent 17 years behind bars.

"The system is too flawed and there's no way we can ever take the chance of executing another innocent person in this country."

David Leverings 13-year-old daughter was the victim of rape and murder as she walked home from church. "To refer to this experience as devastating, doesn't come close," he said. When he was asked what should be done to the perpetrator, he would tell people, "Of course, he should be separated from society, but there is no punishment that could be inflicted upon him that would bring our daughter back."

Source: Claremont-Courier