Entries tagged with “Kern County, California”
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Prosecutorial Accountability
,Representation
,Oct 11, 2016
OUTLIER COUNTIES: Kern County, California Leads Nation in Police Killings, Ranks Among Highest in Death Sentences
Kern County, California—one of five Southern California counties that have been described as the “new Death Belt” — sent six people to death row between 2006 and 2015, more than 99.4% of U.S. counties. Its death sentence-to-homicide rate during the 10-year-period from 2006 to 2015 also was 2.3 times higher than in the rest of the state. In this same time frame, Kern had the highest rate of civilians killed by police of any county in the country: between 2005…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Prosecutorial Accountability
,Sentencing Data
,Sep 10, 2015
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…