On June 23, 2021, the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, a committee established by the California legislature within the California Law Revision Commission, held a meeting to discuss a draft of death penalty recommendations (“the Report”) to be submitted to the governor and legislature. The Committee unanimously voted to adopt the Report.
The Report recommends repealing the death penalty and dismantling death row. The Report states, “the Committee has determined that the death penalty as created and enforced in California does not and cannot ensure justice and fairness for all Californians.” However, the Report also acknowledges that repealing the death penalty in the state is “a difficult goal,” so it proposes several steps to reduce California’s death row in the meantime. These steps include gubernatorial clemency grants and removing people from death row who are permanently mentally incompetent.
To support its proposal, the Report cites extensive research about the problems and inequalities of the California death penalty. Regarding racial disparities, the Report states, “These sources all show a consistent theme: race often determines when the death penalty is sought and when it is imposed.” Regarding geographic disparities, the Report states, “In counties where the population more heavily favors the death penalty, more people are sentenced to death per homicide.” Additionally, the Report explains how people with mental illnesses, people who have experienced traumatic abuse, young people, and innocent people have been unjustly sentenced to death.
The public was then given an opportunity to comment at the meeting. The speakers overwhelmingly expressed support for approving the Report, offering their unique perspectives on issues with the death penalty.
Bethany Webb, a Board member of the California nonprofit group Death Penalty Focus, discussed her personal experience with the capital punishment system and her view that it cannot be trusted. She explained how her sister and four of her friends were murdered in the largest mass shooting in Orange County history. She stated, “I spent six years in court and watched the police and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County District Attorney lie and perjure themselves.” She explained, “What I saw for the six years in court made me absolutely sure that we cannot trust any system right now to take the lives of our citizens, nor should we.” She also stated that the death penalty would not bring back her sister or heal surviving victims of violent crimes.
Steven Rohde, who is the Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, a part of the Black/Jewish Justice Alliance, and also on the Board of Death Penalty Focus, expressed his desire to repeal, and not just “reform” the death penalty in the state. Rohde stated, “I fully support the report and its recommendations. I hope the report will emphasize that your recommendation is to repeal, not reform, the death penalty.” He asserted, “this is a failed experiment at the cost of the lives of people, and [as] one justice said, ‘it is cruel and unusual like lightning is cruel and unusual.’ It has no place in our society for all of the very well outlined reasons in the report.” He also suggested that the Report clarify that the Committee’s recommendation is intended to be retroactive and systemically applied to everyone on death row.
Maria Jose Fernandez, representing the California Catholic Conference, stated that they are in full support of abolishing the death penalty and reducing the size of death row. She stated, “we believe in upholding the sacred dignity of every person and that the death penalty is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of that person, and we believe that a just and necessary punishment shouldn’t exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.”
Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus, gave his perspective on why the death penalty is wrong. He proclaimed, “It is my concern that the practice of the death penalty in this country is brutalizing all of us, and I think we see elements of that brutalization broadcast today in ways that are extraordinarily confounding to people, but very moving. I think it’s a matter of the public health that we do away with this awful practice.”
After public comment, the Committee unanimously voted to adopt the Report as written, given that the committee chair, Michael Romano, may make some non-substantive changes in finalizing.