The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice examined the state’s death penalty on January 10 in an effort to identify inconsistencies in its application and reforms for improving the system. California has the largest death row in the country and the backlog of cases has presented significant problems in ensuring timely appeals and limiting costs. Legal experts suggested that the state needs to narrow its definition of what constitutes a capital crime. The state now has 33 “special circumstance” crimes that allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Noting that ending the death penalty in the state and replacing it with life without parole would save the state considerable money, some commission members declared that the whole death penalty process needs rethinking. Currently, the average inmate has been on California’s death row for 17 years, almost double the national average. The state has executed 13 inmates since reinstating the punishment over 30 years ago.

Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan testified that the expansive list of crimes that qualify for the death penalty is the root cause of California’s backlogged system. “You are having a problem in this state because the front end of the system is overloaded,” he said.

Chief Justice Ronald George told the commission that he considers the overwhelming amount of death penalty appeals the state Supreme Court reviews “a real crisis” that, if not fixed, would “undermine the rule of law.” He recently pushed a constitutional amendment that would spread the cases among the state’s 105 appellate justices. California voters could see this issue on the ballot as soon as November. The Commission will meet again on February 20 in Los Angeles.

(“Legal experts weigh death penalty reform,” by Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2008). See also San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 11, 2008. Costs and Arbitrariness.