Southern California Tops Deep South in New Death Sentences Amid Mounting Evidence of Misconduct

Riverside County, California is ​“the buck­le of a new Death Belt,” says Professor Robert J. Smith of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pro­duc­ing 7 death sen­tences in the first half of 2015. This, Smith says, is ​“more than California’s oth­er 57 coun­ties com­bined, more than any oth­er state, and more than the whole Deep South combined.”

Los Angeles County has pro­duced 33 death sen­tences since 2010 — the most in the Nation — and 5 Southern California coun­ties (also includ­ing Kern, Orange, and San Bernardino) are among the most pro­lif­ic 15 coun­ties nation­wide in pro­duc­ing death sen­tences in that time peri­od. Meanwhile, there has been a dra­mat­ic drop in new death ver­dicts in the Deep South, which Smith notes for­mer­ly pro­duced the most death sen­tences. No one has been sen­tenced to death in 2015 in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or Texas. 

The Southern California coun­ties ​“have more in com­mon than overzeal­ous use of the death penal­ty,” Smith says. Prosecutor’s offices in these coun­ties face charges of ram­pant mis­con­duct, includ­ing delib­er­ate­ly with­hold­ing favor­able evi­dence and lying to courts. The entire Orange County District Attorney’s office was recused from a recent cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion as a result of exten­sive mis­con­duct. Its Deputy District Attorney Erik Petersen recent­ly resigned and left the state after he came under scruti­ny for the use of an ille­gal jail­house infor­mant pro­gram to secure tes­ti­mo­ny against defen­dants. In Riverside County, fed­er­al courts over­turned a mur­der con­vic­tion ear­li­er this year because a pros­e­cu­tor lied about whether an infor­mant received incen­tives for tes­ti­fy­ing. Kern and Los Angeles pros­e­cu­tors have also been cit­ed for repeat­ed acts of mis­con­duct. (Click image to enlarge. Map shows coun­ties that hand­ed down the most death sen­tences in 2014.)

Despite the high num­ber of death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions con­tin­ue to be on hold in California — the last exe­cu­tion there was in 2006 — and the long delays in the appeals process led a fed­er­al judge to declare the state’s death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.