California Death Penalty Measure: Early Returns Favor Keeping the Death Penalty

UPDATED AT 11:50 P.M.: With just 46 percent of the vote tallied, Californians are rejecting a measure to repeal the death penalty by a vote of 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent, according to the Secretary of State. Conversely, voters favor reforming the death penalty by 51 percent to 49 percent.

If Proposition 62 fails, which it appears to be doing, California will keep the death penalty. Proposition 66, the "mend don't end" death penalty measure is narrowly passing, but the race is still too close to call. If it fails, California will return to its status quo, a state of limbo wherein no condemned inmates have been executed since 2006. If it passes, it would aim to speed up executions and reduce the cost of keeping prisoners on Death Row. But executions were put on hold because of a 9th Circuit ruling requiring a medical professional to administer lethal injection drugs. It's not clear if the passage of Proposition of 62 would actually cause executions to resume.

During exit interviews, Patch found voters torn on whether to get rid of the death penalty or to reform it and execute more people.

Proposition 62 would have abolished the death penalty in California, automatically converting sentences for death row inmates to life without the possibility of parole. And Proposition 66 reforms the death penalty to speed up the rate of executions by speeding up the process for inmates’ appeals.

RELATED: Voters to Make Make Life or Death Decision with Dueling Death Penalty Measures

“For the death penalty, I think they should repeal it," said Shon Hayes, a 42-year-old school bus driver. "I always say, ‘We’re not God.’ Who are we saying who should die, and two wrongs don’t make a right.' ”

Lenore Aldridge, a 36-year-old investigator from El Cajon said California needs to be able to execute the worst offenders.

"I’m all for the death penalty,” she said.

In the waning days of the election, Proposition 62 appeared to be benefiting by last-minute appeals to voters by some high-profile supporters. In Los Angeles, the city passed a resolution supporting Proposition 62 and opposing Proposition 66.

"The polls indicate that people are still divided over this issue," said Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo . "I urge Californians to ask themselves whether it's worth investing in a broken system that's cost us $5 billion."

Prop 62 would apply retroactively to people already sentenced to death, and would require prisoners serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for murder to work while in prison.

Passage of the initiative would result in a net reduction in state and local government costs of potentially around $150 million annually within a few years, according to an analysis conducted by the Legislative Analyst's Office and Department of Finance.

During a City Hall news conference, Cedillo said he is "proud the city has taken a position against the death penalty" and appealed to voters to vote down Proposition 66, which he called "a reckless counter-measure" that "jeopardizes more innocent lives and the loss of more money for the state."

Cedillo was joined by 42-year-old Franky Carrillo, a resident of Echo Park who said he was sentenced to life in prison after being wrongfully accused in 1991 of murdering a man in Lynwood. He was exonerated of the crime 20 years later with the help of a private law firm and the Innocence Project.

Carrillo said the legal system "failed me, and I was wrongfully convicted," but that he was lucky to have "good people came to my rescue -- good lawyers, good advocates."

Former "M*A*S*H" star Mike Farrell, a longtime advocate of ending the death penalty, said that had Carrillo been convicted as an adult, he might have been executed before he had the chance to get his name cleared.
"We have a (death penalty) system that is broken ... and it is irreparable," Farrell said.

Supporters of Proposition 66, including Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, differ with Cedillo and Farrell on how to fix the "broken" death penalty system.

"We agree California's current death penalty system is broken," but they contend in a ballot argument that "the most heinous criminals sit on death row for 30 years, with endless appeals delaying justice and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions.

It does not need to be this way. The solution is to mend, not end, California's death penalty," they wrote.
Proposition 66 proposes to direct initial death-sentence appeals to a superior court judge and limit the number of successive appeals. It would also establish a timeline for appeals, widen the field of appointed attorneys to handle death penalty appeals, and authorize the transfer of death row inmates among state prisons.

In the event both measures are approved by voters, the measure with more yes votes would go into effect.
A measure to repeal the death penalty on the November 2012 ballot was rejected by a 52 percent-48 percent margin.

Read the Secretary of State Voter Guide for Proposition 62 here.

Read the Secretary of State Voter Guide for Proposition 66 here.

Photo: San Quentin's lethal injection chamber courtesy of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.