10E Action 2011 0919 - Laserfiche WebLink

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WHEREAS Governor Brown has the power to convert death sentences to sentences of life imprisonment without any possibility of parole, saving the state $1 billion in the next five years without releasing a single prisoner; WHEREAS California's County District Attorneys are solely responsible for pursuing the death penalty for persons convicted of special circumstance first- degree murders within their Counties; WHEREAS the California State Legislature and Governor Brown have the ability to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to permanently replace the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; RESOLVED by the General Assembly of the League of California Cities, assembled during the Annual Conference in San Francisco, September 23, 2011, that the League of California Cities call upon Governor Jerry Brown to convert all death sentences to sentences of life imprisonment without any possibility of parole, mandating those sentenced to life without the possibility of parole to work in prison and pay restitution to the victims' families, and that the money saved by the state be used to fund education, local government, and public safety; RESOLVED that the League of California Cities call upon California's County District Attorneys to desist from pursuing the death penalty, and to invest the savings in solving homicides, violence prevention, and effective public safety programs; RESOLVED that the League of California Cities call upon the California State Legislature and Governor Brown to place on a statewide ballot a constitutional amendment to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Pursuant to this resolution copies of the adopted and officially signed resolution will be sent to Governor Jerry Brown, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the leadership of the California State Senate and Assembly, County District Attorneys and their County Board of Supervisors Back6round Information on Resolution No. 5 Source: Citv of Claremont California's death penalty is broken and remains at risk of executing an innocent person. A new study of the costs of California's death penalty was recently conducted by Judge Arthur Alarcon, a conservative federal judge who supports the death penalty, and Prof. Paula Mitchell, a law school professor who opposes the death penalty. With access to new information and documentation, their study is the most comprehensive appraisal of expenditures associated with the death penalty. They concluded that the death penalty costs California taxpayers $184 million each year; California has spent a total of $4 billion on the death penalty since 1978 and is expected to spend another $1 billion over the next five years; each execution in California costs $308 million. Judge Alarcon and Professor Mitchell concluded that the current death penalty system is broken. With over 700 inmates, California's death row is the largest and most costly in the country, yet we have only executed 13 people since 1978. Victims' family members are put through a decades -long legal ordeal based on the hollow promise of execution, but 99% of those sentenced to death are never executed. The funds wasted on California's dysfunctional death penalty could be better spent to ensure public safety if the death penalty were replaced with Life Without the Possibility of Parole, allowing $1 billion over the next 15