Blog: Yes on Prop. 34

Prop. 34 is a California ballot initiative that you will have a chance to vote on this November.

It replaces the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prop. 34 is supported by the League of Women Voters, the California Nurses Assn. and the California Democratic Party.

Prop. 34 is also supported by the lawyer who wrote California's 1978 death penalty law, a lead proponent of that law and a former prison warden. Why are these former supporters now against the California death penalty?

1) Because the death penalty in our state is broken beyond repair. California's Supreme Court justices have declared there is no chance the death penalty system can ever be fixed.

2) The death penalty has cost the state $4 billion since 1978 but it does not work! Only 13 people have been executed since 1967, none since 2006.

3) Prop 34 would save $1 billion over five years without the possibility that a single prisoner now on death row would ever be released. Current death row prisoners would be reassigned to the general population where they be required to work and pay restitution to the victims' compensation fund. Current death row prisoners sit in costly individual cells doing nothing but keeping special lawyers busy with constant court appeals that get nowhere. It's a farce.

4) Prop 34 will set aside $30 million in savings per year for three years to go back to local law enforcement to help solve the 46% of murders and 56% of rapes that currently go unsolved every year.

Replace the death penalty with justice that works for everyone! More information at: www.yeson34.org. Help us spread the word: Volunteer at All Saints Episcopal Church phone banks starting next month. Contact Karen Scauzillo, kscauzillo@gmail.com, for volunteer information.