California

Timeline

1977 – State Legislature over­rides Governor Jerry Brown’s veto and rein­states the death penal­ty, allow­ing for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in first degree mur­ders with any of 12 special circumstances.

1978 – California vot­ers pass the Briggs Initiative which cre­ates California’s cur­rent death penal­ty statute, adding 16 more spe­cial cir­cum­stances, for a total of 28 death-eligible crimes.

1990 – Voters pass two addi­tion­al ini­tia­tives, adding 5 more spe­cial cir­cum­stances, for a total of 33 death-eligible crimes.

1996 – Voters pass two ini­tia­tives that add 3 addi­tion­al spe­cial cir­cum­stances, bring­ing the total to 36 death-eligible crimes.

2000 – Two vot­er ini­tia­tives add anoth­er 3 spe­cial cir­cum­stances to California’s death penal­ty law, for a total of 39 death-eligible crimes.

2012 – Proposition 34 was on the bal­lot, which would have repealed the death penal­ty and replaced it with life in prison. The propo­si­tion failed, but received 48% sup­port from voters.

2016 – Proposition 62 was on the bal­lot, which would have replaced the death penal­ty with a strict life sen­tence in prison. In response, death-penal­ty pro­po­nents pre­sent­ed a counter-propo­si­tion, Proposition 66, which sought to retain the death penal­ty and expe­dite state cap­i­tal appeals by chang­ing the way in which appeals are processed. Proposition 62 failed, but received 46% sup­port from vot­ers. Proposition 66 passed with 51% sup­port from voters.

2017 – The Supreme Court of California upheld the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Proposition 66 but severe­ly lim­it­ed the scope of its core pro­vi­sions. In Briggs v. Brown, the court sus­tained por­tions of the mea­sure that shift­ed which court will hear cap­i­tal cas­es, increased the pool of death-penal­ty appeal lawyers by requir­ing lawyers who accept oth­er appel­late appoint­ments to also take cap­i­tal cas­es, elim­i­nat­ed pub­lic review of exe­cu­tion meth­ods, and lim­it­ed both the issues that can be raised in cap­i­tal habeas appeals and the time courts have to decide them. However, the major­i­ty ruled that the measure’s flag­ship pro­vi­sion — a five-year dead­line on appeals by con­demned pris­on­ers — was ​“direc­tive, rather than manda­to­ry”; that ​“courts must make indi­vid­u­al­ized deci­sions based on the cir­cum­stances of each case”; and that ​“pris­on­ers may seek to chal­lenge [the time lim­i­ta­tions and lim­i­ta­tion on the claims they are per­mit­ted to raise] in the con­text of their individual cases.”

2019 — On March 13, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an exec­u­tive order plac­ing a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in California. ​“The inten­tion­al killing of anoth­er per­son is wrong and as Governor, I will not over­see the exe­cu­tion of any indi­vid­ual,” said Governor Newsom. ​“Our death penal­ty sys­tem has been, by all mea­sures, a fail­ure. It has dis­crim­i­nat­ed against defen­dants who are men­tal­ly ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expen­sive legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It has pro­vid­ed no pub­lic safe­ty ben­e­fit or val­ue as a deter­rent. It has wast­ed bil­lions of tax­pay­er dol­lars. Most of all, the death penal­ty is absolute. It’s irre­versible and irrepara­ble in the event of human error.” At the time, there were 737 pris­on­ers on California’s death row. The mora­to­ri­um remains in place as of October 3, 2023.

2020 — COVID-19 kills more California death row pris­on­ers than the state has exe­cut­ed in 27 years.

2022 — Governor Gavin Newsom signs The Racial Justice Act for All bill into law, which pro­vides a process for death-row pris­on­ers to receive relief from con­vic­tions or death sen­tences obtained ​“on the basis of race, eth­nic­i­ty, or nation­al ori­gin,” and AB2657, which removes those who are per­ma­nent­ly men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent from death row.

2023 — Governor Gavin Newsom moves for­ward with efforts to dis­man­tle San Quentin’s death row by inte­grat­ing inmates from death row into gen­er­al prison pop­u­la­tions through­out the state.

Famous Cases

Manuel Babbitt was a Vietnam War Veteran who was exe­cut­ed in 1999 for mur­der­ing an elder­ly Sacramento woman. Babbitt served two com­bat tours in Vietnam and, while on death row, received the Purple Heart for wounds he received dur­ing the Battle of Khe Sanh. After the war, Babbitt was diag­nosed with a post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der and para­noid schiz­o­phre­nia. He soon became home­less. In 1980, he broke into the home of 78-year-old Leah Schendel, assault­ed her and stole some food as well as some of her belong­ings. Schendel died of a heart attack. He laid a mat­tress over her and toe tagged her. Babbitt said that he was hav­ing a Vietnam War flash­back. During the sen­tenc­ing phase of the tri­al, James Schenk, Babbitt’s defense lawyer, did not intro­duce any evi­dence of Babbitt’s men­tal ill­ness to the jury, prompt­ing him to lat­er say that he ​“failed com­plete­ly” dur­ing this cru­cial phase of the tri­al. Before his exe­cu­tion, Babbitt refused his last meal and asked for the allot­ted mon­ey to be donat­ed to a home­less Vietnam Veteran. Prison offi­cials refused his request. (E. Nieves, ​“Vietnam Veteran Executed for 1980 Murder.” The New York Times, May 5, 1999.)

In the ear­ly 1970s, Stanley Williams co-found­ed the Crips, a vio­lent street gang from Los Angeles. Williams was sen­tenced to death in 1981 for the mur­ders of four peo­ple that took place dur­ing a rob­bery spree in 1979. While he admit­ted that he had com­mit­ted many bru­tal acts while he was involved in the Crips, Williams always main­tained his inno­cence with regards to the mur­ders for which he was sen­tenced to death. In 1996, Williams co-authored ​“Gangs and Wanting to Belong,” the first in a series of anti-gang children’s books. He lat­er went on to write ​“Life in Prison” and ​“Blue Rage, Black Redemption”. For his anti-gang youth out­reach, Williams was nom­i­nat­ed for the Nobel Peace Prize a total of six times. Many notable lead­ers, includ­ing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Rigoberta Menchu, asked the Governor to spare William’s life. But then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant clemen­cy and Williams was exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion at San Quentin State Prison on December 13, 2005. (“Timeline: Tookie’s Path to Death Row.” NPR News, December 13, 2005.)

Thomas Thompson was exe­cut­ed in 1998 for the rape and mur­der of Ginger Fleischli despite sub­stan­tial evi­dence that he was inno­cent and that some­one else had com­mit­ted the mur­der. In 1981, Thompson and Fleischli spent a night drink­ing togeth­er in Long Beach. Thompson claimed that he and Fleischli had con­sen­su­al sex before going to sleep and that she had dis­ap­peared by the time he awoke the next morn­ing. When Fleischli’s body was dis­cov­ered, a foot­print near her grave was linked to Thompson’s room­mate and Fleischli’s ex-boyfriend: David Leitch. Leitch had a his­to­ry of vio­lence and had threat­ened Fleischli just two weeks before her dis­ap­pear­ance. Despite this evi­dence and cloth fibers from Fleischli’s cloth­ing that were dis­cov­ered in the trunk of Leitch’s car, Leitch and Thompson were both arrest­ed and charged with the mur­der. They were tried sep­a­rate­ly, Thompson first. The pros­e­cu­tion pro­ceed­ed on a the­o­ry that Thompson had raped and then killed Fleischli to cov­er up the rape, and that Leitch’s involve­ment was lim­it­ed to help­ing dis­pose of the body. (A rape-mur­der spe­cial cir­cum­stance alle­ga­tion ren­dered Thompson eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty). The pros­e­cu­tor relied heav­i­ly on two jail­house infor­mants, one of whom was Edward Fink, who tes­ti­fied that Thompson said he raped the vic­tim and then killed her to pre­vent her from report­ing the rape. Leitch was tried by the same pros­e­cu­tor. The prosecution’s the­o­ry at Leitch’s tri­al was that Leitch was a vio­lent drug abuser who had the sole motive to com­mit the mur­der. Leitch was found guilty of 2^nd-degree mur­der and sen­tenced to 15 years to life. Thompson’s case was over­turned twice on appeals, with a con­ser­v­a­tive US District Judge say­ing that the case left him with an ​“unset­tling feel­ing.” After this deci­sion was reversed, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals again over­turned the death sen­tence, stat­ing that there was doubt over Thompson’s guilt. Eventually, the US Supreme Court over­turned this deci­sion on a tech­ni­cal­i­ty, and Thompson was exe­cut­ed. (E. Bailey, E. Schrader, and T. Hua, ​“Killer put to Death by Injection at San Quentin.” The Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1998.)

Notable Exonerations

In ear­ly 1941, Fred Rogers​’s moth­er com­mit­ted sui­cide by inhal­ing chlo­ro­form. Nine months lat­er his griev­ing father died of smoke inhala­tion after delib­er­ate­ly set­ting his house on fire. Police, sus­pi­cious of the two deaths, arrest­ed Fred Rogers for mur­der. During the inter­ro­ga­tion, the inter­view­ers told Rogers that they had enough evi­dence to send him to the gas cham­ber, but he would spare his life if he con­fessed. Rogers quick­ly con­fessed to the two mur­ders. At tri­al how­ev­er, Rogers recant­ed his con­fes­sion, but was even­tu­al­ly found guilty and sen­tenced to death. When the California Supreme Court reviewed the case in 1943, they not­ed the lack of sub­stan­tial evi­dence against Rogers as well as the ques­tion­able police meth­ods used to elic­it the con­fes­sion, and the con­vic­tion was over­turned. When Rogers was retried, the court dis­missed all charges and released him.

Paul Imbler was sen­tenced to death for the 1961 mur­der of a store own­er in Los Angeles. The owner’s wife – who had wit­nessed the mur­der – picked Imbler’s face out of a col­lec­tion of police pho­tographs. Additionally, a wit­ness named Alfred Costello claimed to have chased Imbler after the attack, recov­er­ing his coat and firearm in an alley. After Imbler was sen­tenced to death, inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tors dis­cov­ered that Costello, an ex-con and men­tal patient who was also run­ning an ille­gal book­mak­ing oper­a­tion out of the victim’s store, had pro­duced unre­li­able tes­ti­mo­ny in court. Furthermore, the firearm dis­cov­ered in the alley was nev­er con­clu­sive­ly linked to Imbler. With this new infor­ma­tion, the California Courts admit­ted that he had been con­vict­ed in error, and released him ten years after he was arrested.

Vicente Benavides Figueroa, wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1993 on charges that he had raped, anal­ly sodom­ized, and mur­dered his girlfriend’s 21-month-old daugh­ter, was exon­er­at­ed on April 19, 2018. A tri­al court in Kern County, California for­mal­ly dis­missed all charges against Benavides, a Mexican nation­al, two days after Kern District Attorney Lisa Green said her office would not be seek­ing a retri­al. The California Supreme Court had grant­ed the for­mer farm­work­er a new tri­al in March 2018, call­ing his con­vic­tions for sex­u­al­ly assault­ing and mur­der­ing Consuelo Verdugo a prod­uct of ​“exten­sive,” ​“per­va­sive,” ​“impact­ful,” and ​“false” foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny. The girl, the court said, had nev­er been sex­u­al­ly assault­ed and may actu­al­ly have died from being hit by a car.

Notable Commutations and Clemencies

William Lindley was sen­tenced to death for the 1943 mur­der of a 13 year-old girl. The red­head­ed Lindley was an illit­er­ate and men­tal­ly ill itin­er­ant farmer from Central California. During the inves­ti­ga­tion, police relied on tes­ti­mo­ny from a shep­herd who wit­nessed the attack, claim­ing that the attack­er was a red­head. Furthermore, the lit­tle girl her­self described the attack­er as a red­head before she died. Finally, a jail­house infor­mant claimed that Lindley con­fessed to the mur­der. After the jury sen­tenced Lindley to death, Al Matthews, an attor­ney from Los Angeles, began inde­pen­dent­ly inves­ti­gat­ing the case. Matthews dis­cov­ered that the shep­herd who wit­nessed the attack was col­or­blind, and thus unable to know whether or not the attack­er was indeed a red­head. Matthews also dis­cov­ered that anoth­er red­head­ed farmer had been in the vicin­i­ty dur­ing the crime, and had been not­ed to have mys­te­ri­ous scratch­es on his face after the attack. Further, wit­ness­es came for­ward claim­ing that this farmer had repeat­ed­ly con­fessed to the mur­der. Even with this new infor­ma­tion, the California Supreme Court did not imme­di­ate­ly over­turn the sen­tence. In January 1946, Lindley came with­in hours of being exe­cut­ed before a tem­po­rary reprieve came. In July of that year, he came with­in two days of being exe­cut­ed before anoth­er reprieve came. In October, he won a third reprieve a week before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. It was not until 1947 that Governor Earl Warren com­mut­ed Lindley’s sen­tence to life imprisonment.

In 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan com­mut­ed Calvin Thomas​’s sen­tence from death to life impris­on­ment after it was dis­cov­ered that Thomas suf­fered from organ­ic brain dam­age. Thomas had been con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing a three year-old boy. Thomas’s brain dam­age was dis­cov­ered after the tri­al. To date, this is the last time a California gov­er­nor has com­mut­ed a death sen­tence. (H. Chiang, ​“No Clemency if History is a Precedent.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 26, 1999.)

Milestones in Abolition and Reinstatement

1872 – Capital pun­ish­ment autho­rized in state Penal Code

1972 – California Supreme Court declares death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. 107 con­demned pris­on­ers resen­tenced. California vot­ers pass Proposition 17, an ini­tia­tive that amends the California Constitution to pro­vide that the death penal­ty is not cru­el or unusual punishment.

Other Interesting Facts

California’s death row is the largest in the coun­try with more than 665 con­demned pris­on­ers (as of January 1, 2023 DRUSA). During the 2016 cam­paign on Propositions 62 and 66, the Yes on 62 (death penal­ty abo­li­tion) cam­paign made the dra­mat­ic asser­tion that ​“California is home to the largest death row pop­u­la­tion in the Western Hemisphere.” PolitiFact California fact-checked the claim and rat­ed it as accu­rate. C. Nichols, ​“Truth be told: California has ​‘largest death row in Western Hemisphere’,” KPCC, Capitol Public Radio, August 12, 2016.

Resources

DPIC RESOURCES: Analysis and Fact-Check of 2016 California Referenda. California had two death penal­ty ini­tia­tives on the bal­lot in November 2016, one that sought to repeal the death penal­ty (Proposition 62) and one that sought to lim­it state court judi­cial review of death penal­ty appeals (Proposition 66). As Californians pre­pared to vote on the ref­er­en­da, DPIC cre­at­ed a web page to offer fact-check­ing and con­text. Our page pre­sent­ed the offi­cial argu­ments that each cam­paign wrote for the California Voter Guide, with state­ments high­light­ed as ver­i­fied, mis­lead­ing, or mixed, with links to rel­e­vant back­ground infor­ma­tion. In addi­tion, it pro­vid­ed detailed expla­na­tions on issues of race, inno­cence, and costs to fur­ther edu­cate vot­ers about the poten­tial impacts of abol­ish­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment (Prop. 62) or cur­tail­ing the appeals process (Prop. 66).

• Death Penalty Focus
• ACLU of Northern California – Death Penalty Project
• California Crime Victims for Alternatives for the Death Penalty
• California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty
• SAFE California — sup­port­ing a bal­lot ini­tia­tive to replace California’s death penal­ty with life impris­on­ment without parole
• Department of Corrections
• Prosecutors
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices
• California Cost Study 2011 - DPIC sum­ma­ry of ​“A roadmap to mend or end the California leg­is­la­ture’s mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar death penal­ty deba­cle” from Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review by Judge Arthur L. Alarcon & Paula M. Mitchell.

California Execution Totals Since 1976