Death Penalty News

California's San Quentin prison houses the state's only death row for male inmates. Death row for men and women will soon be dismantled. SAN FRANCISCO — California this week pushed ahead with controversial efforts to dismantle the largest death row system in America.

Bernie Sanders Sanders received the award for being the first presidential candidate in nearly 30 years to declare his opposition to the death penalty. BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was honored for his opposition to the death penalty in Beverly Hills on Sunday, one day after expressing optimism about creating "a government which works for all of us." Sanders received the Abolition Award at the 26th annual Death Penalty Focus Awards Dinner at The Beverly Hilton for being the first presidential candidate in nearly 30 years to forcefully declare his opposition to the death penalty and playing a key role in getting the Democratic Party to adopt abolition of capital punishment as a plank in its platform, organizers said. "Senator Sanders was instrumental in getting the Democratic Party to adopt abolition of capital punishment as a plank in its official platform last summer," said DPF President Mike Farrell. "I can't think of an...

California death row California voters will be asked this fall whether to repeal the state's 38-year-old death penalty, as elections officials announced Friday that an initiative to abolish the law has earned a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot. Backers of the initiative gathered almost 405,000 voter signatures, according to the final tally conducted by county elections officials. The initiative, championed by former "M*A*S*H" actor Mike Farrell, would eliminate the death penalty for first-degree murder. The most serious punishment would become life in prison without the possibility of parole. That would include the 743 inmates now on death row, the largest condemned population of any U.S. state and one beset with cases of extreme mental illness . "Whether you look at the death penalty from a taxpayer, a criminal justice or a civil rights perspective, what is clear is that it fails in every respect," said Farrell in a written statement Friday evenin...

California's brand new death chamber With public support for capital punishment declining, activists who fell just short of winning a voter repeal of California’s death penalty law in 2012 are preparing for another attempt in November 2016. Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco organization that was part of the campaign for Proposition 34 in 2012, has filed a proposed state constitutional amendment with election officials that would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Once cleared for circulation next month, it would need 585,407 signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot. The campaign would be led by actor and activist Mike Farrell, who stepped down as executive director of Death Penalty Focus so he could run the initiative effort. Farrell said organizers are making plans to circulate the measure but are awaiting word on fundraising prospects before making a final decision. Polls and other in...

Mike Farrell A new ballot initiative is being proposed in California to end the state's death penalty. Longtime anti-death penalty advocate actor Mike Farrell is promoting "The Justice That Works Act of 2016," which would amend the California penal code to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Initiative supporters have to collect more than 365,000 signatures in 180 days to get the measure on the November 2016 ballot. It's the latest move toward ending capitol punishment in California. In July 2014, a federal judge ruled California's death penalty unconstitutional. That ruling is awaiting review. California has not executed a prisoner in nearly a decade despite the state having more than 740 condemned convicts on death row - that's the largest number of any state. Alex Simpson, associate director of the California Innocence Project, will discuss the status of the death penalty in California Th...

By Mike Farrell (left) As president of the board of Death Penalty Focus, an abolition organization, I find myself discussing executions a lot. Whether to kill a person who commits a violent crime is a thorny question for some, I know, so I don't mind talking about it. Thoughtful consideration of the subject is actually a pleasure. The problem is that it's not easy to have a rational discussion about something like state killing when support for it is largely the result of emotion, fear, ignorance and the cowardice of political leaders who know better. It's frustrating to its advocates that the facts support abolition. Faced with a reality unfriendly to their position, many revert to anger or fear and fall back on a desire for revenge rather than justice. I cringe when I hear otherwise rational people say it's okay to execute an innocent person now and then if it's the price we pay for keeping the death penalty. "Besides," I've heard too many say, some...

In opinion pieces that appeared in papers across California last year, former prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers raised their voices to declare: enough already, it's time to ditch the death penalty. Let's consider what they had to say. Last April, Aundre Herron shared her unique perspective in the Sacramento Bee. Herron began her career as a prosecutor and later became a defense attorney. Yet, nothing in her professional life prepared her for the murder of her older brother Danny. As a result of what Heron calls a "legal technicality," her brother's killer was never convicted. She described the experience this way: Having served on both sides of the criminal justice system, the experience of losing my brother in this unforgettably tragic way, without recourse or retribution, forced me to re-examine the way "execution" and "closure" are joined in contrived alliance, recited by death penalty advocates to justify their point of view....

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 ...