Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Gov. Newsom: Dead Wrong on Death Penalty

California Gov. Newsom: Dead Wrong on All Death Penalty Points
Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom

updated 3/2023

The Governor lied and lied and lied . . .

"As a gubernatorial candidate, Newsom solemnly pledged to abide by the voters' death-penalty decisions, despite disagreeing with them. He promised to be "accountable to the will of the voters" and not let his "personal opinions" interfere with "the public's right to make a determination" about capital punishment. His spokesman last year told the San Francisco Chronicle that Newsom "recognizes that California voters have spoken on the issue and [would] respect the will of the electorate." In editorial-board meetings, Newsom agreed that "it would be an affront for a governor to say 'Here's what I'm going to do by fiat.' " (Gavin Newsom's death-row betrayal, by Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe March 20, 2019)

 Newsom lied, of course, and his deceptions continue.

Newsom's, alleged, concerns over the death penalty (bold), followed by my comments.

Bias by race:

Nationally, white murderers are twice as likely to be executed, as are black murderers (1) and have an execution rate 41% higher than black death row inmates (2).

From 1980-2008, for the White–Black comparisons, the Black level is 12.7 times greater than the White level for homicide, 15.6 times greater for robbery, 6.7 times greater for rape (3).

Robbery and rape murders are the most common death penalty crimes (4).

There is no race of the defendant nor race of the victim bias effect within capital murders (5).

Bias against the poor

We execute 0.2% of our murderers (6).  It is, solely, dependent upon one's definitions of poor and rich, as to whether the rich, a vast minority of capital murderers, are executed at rates higher or lower than the 0.2% of the poor, the vast majority of capital murderers.

We, the people, spared no expense defending (poor) Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (7), executed four years after sentencing (8).

Too expensive

The two recent Ca studies for death penalty vs life costs are a sham (9).

Both studies included $15,000/yr for capital murder lifers, when the "average" cell cost was more than $45,000/yr (10)  (Now $80,000/yr, 2017-2018 (10a)), with high security cells up to $174,000/yr. (11), or about $5 million, for 50 years, at $100,000/yr/inmate, for capital murder lifers, WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE pre trial, trial, nor appeals costs, nor specific geriatric care, being 3-9 times average cell cost (12), adding millions more to the total, resulting in life being more expensive than the death penalty, all left out of those "studies".

Repeal of the death penalty ends life without parole pleas, leaving only life with parole, as a plea.

Innocents at risk

Newsom parrots that 1 out of 25 death row inmates are innocent. Nonsense.

The current claim by death penalty opponents (DPO) is that 164 (1.8%) (13) were "exonerated", wherein DPO thought it a good idea to redefine both "innocent" and "exonerated", as redefining lie as truth, and then stuck a bunch of cases into those "revised" definitions (13,14,15).

NY Times reported "innocent" claims to be 71% false (16). Today, that being 116 false claims of the 164 claimed "exonerated", or 48 (0.6%) proven innocent, all of whom have been released (16). The false claims of innocence range from 71-83% (17) .

That deception is the foundation of the 1 out of 25 "study" (18).

We might have proof that innocents were executed as recently as 1915 - two brothers from South Carolina (19). Tragic.

The major innocence problem, nationally, as within California, is this:

Since 1973:

20,000 innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers (20);

500,000 innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals (20).

Living murderers harm and murder, again. Executed ones do not.

Where are the innocents at risk?

No deterrence

The deterrent effect of severe sanctions and severe negative incentives has never been negated and cannot be.  The evidence that some are deterred is overwhelming (21). The evidence that none are deterred is non existent (21).

Absent the death penalty/executions, we risk sacrificing more innocent lives. With the death penalty/executions, we "risk" saving more innocent lives.

Pick your risk.

Nobel Prize Laureate Gary Becker: “the evidence of a variety of types — not simply the quantitative evidence — has been enough to convince me that capital punishment does deter and is worth using for the worst sorts of offenses.” (NY Times, 11/18/07)

"(Becker) is the most important social scientist in the past 50 years The NY Times, 5/5/14

Bias against the mentally ill

Newsom is, fully, aware that competency is considered pre trial, trial and within appeals, to determine if the defendant/convicted party is, legally, competent to be held responsible for their crimes.

Polling

Poll support is 70-86%, with actual cases (22).  For example, ask: Do you support  a death sentence in cases wherein children have been raped/tortured/murdered? With answer options of -- sometimes -- always -- never.

Execution support was 81% for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, with near equal support over all demographics. 58% of those who OPPOSE execution, supported McVeigh's execution (23) - the "sometimes" component is huge.

Death Penalty Support 72-86% depending upon question (8/2021)
New Evidence of Broad Support for Death Penalty | RealClearPolicy
Joseph M. Bessette & J. Andrew Sinclair, RealClearPolicy August 16, 2021 https://www.realclearpolicy.com/2021/08/16/new_evidence_of_broad_support_for_death_penalty_790059.html#! 
 
This study reflects well known polls, for the last 15 years, proving much higher  death penalty support than by the oft quoted, much less accurate Gallup.

Death penalty problems? Nope. Management problems

Human management is irresponsible, not the death penalty. Newsom is oblivious.

Responsible management exists in Virginia. Since 1976, Virginia has executed 112 murderers, within 7 years of FULL appeals, on average (24).

Had California management been responsible, as Virginia, there would, now, be 47 murderers on death row, not 737 (25).

Newsom has shown his contempt for truth, justice, jurors, citizens, innocent rape/torture/murder victims and their survivors.

Murderers and their advocates are jubilant.

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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
http://prodpquotes.info/ 
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FN

1)  56% of those executed are white, 34% black (a). The Black level is 12.7 times greater than the White level for homicide (fn 3).

(a) although a very untrusted anti-death penalty site, this stat is correct - DPIC, Facts About The Death Penalty, March 12, 2019, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf

NOTE:   2016 - 20 prisoners were executed, 16 white, 2 Hispanic, 2 black. 70 prisoners released from under sentence of death by means other than execution, p 2, Highlights, BJS Capital Punishment Report, 2016, April, 2018, 

2) From 1977-2012, white death row murderers have been executed at a rate 41% higher than are black death row murderers, 19.3% vs 13.7%, respectively. ( Table 12, Executions and other dispositions of inmates sentenced to death, by race and Hispanic origin, 1977–2012, Capital Punishment 2012, Bureau of Justice Statistics, last edited 11/3/14)

3)  REASSESSING TRENDS IN BLACK VIOLENT CRIME, 1980.2008: SORTING OUT THE "HISPANIC EFFECT" IN UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS ARRESTS, NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY OFFENDER ESTIMATES, AND U.S. PRISONER COUNTS, See pages 208-209, FN 5,  DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER, BEN FELDMEYER, CASEY T. HARRIS, JEFFERY T. ULMER, Criminology, Volume 49, Issue 1, Article first published online: 24 FEB 2011  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00222.x/pdf

4) You have to go through each "Offender Information" link, Death Row Information, Offenders on Death Row, Texas Department of Criminal Justice,

5) paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
RACE & THE DEATH PENALTY: A REBUTTAL TO THE RACISM CLAIMS

6)  Using average of 18,000 murders per year (1973-2018), with 1493 executions, or 0.18%, see FBI data at Disaster Center, http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

7) McVeigh defense cost U.S. $15 million, Chicago Tribune, 10/28/2001

8) 1997-2001

9) Death Penalty Costs: California

10) ibid

10a) Figure 1, (Prisons plus Administration),  Total Expenditures for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,  2017-2018 Proposed, The 2017-2018 Budget, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, March 1, 2017,

also see

$10,000-$40,000/yr/inmate (2012), additional, ONLY for geriatric prisoner medical care from
Medical Expenditures for Older Inmates, IV. Aging Bodies, Soaring Costs, Old Behaind Bars, Human Rights Watch, 1/27/12, 

11) ibid, 9

12)  Older prisoners  (2005 and 2011) cost 3-9 times more than younger prisoners, from: Human Rights Watch. Old Behind Bars: The Aging Prison Population in the United States. Human Rights Watch; Jan 27, 2012 & American Civil Liberties Union. At America's Expense: The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly. American Civil Liberties Union; New York, NY: June, 2012

13)  The Innocence List, DPIC, as of November, 2018,

14) ibid,  The modern era of death penalty cases did not begin until after Gregg v Georgia, 1976, however, based upon the numbers, the end of 1978, is when we finally resolved all the Gregg issues, in the modern era, which means, we should omit 34 of those cases (1963-1978), bringing the number down to 130, minus the 71%, or 38 innocents - see

TABLE 16 Prisoners sentenced to death and the outcome of the sentence, by year of sentencing, 1973–2013, Capital Punishment, 2013, Statistical Tables, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2014,

15)  see sections 3 and 4
The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html

and

The "Innocent", the "Exonerated" and Death Row:
An Open Fraud in the Death Penalty Debate: How Death Penalty Opponents Lie 
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-innocent-exonerated-and-death-row_19.html

16)  Liptak: "To be sure, 30 or 40 categorically innocent people have been released from death row," (NY Times, 1/23/05). At the time of the article, there were 119 listed on the Innocence List (fn 13) 35 innocent, as per average by Liptak, means a 71% error rate with the 119. 'The Death of Innocents': A Reasonable Doubt, by Adam Liptak, NY Times, JAN. 23, 2005

17) ibid, fn 15

18)  The 4.1% "Innocent" on Death Row: More Nonsense

19)  South Carolina pardons black brothers convicted of 1913 killing, By Alex Spilliu, The Telegraph, 18 Oct 2009, 

20) Section 4 b and d


21) OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate
and
MURDERERS MUCH PREFER LIFE OVER EXECUTION
99.7% of murderers tell us "Give me life, not execution"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html

22)  86% Death Penalty Support: Highest Ever - April 2013
World Support Remains High
95% of Murder Victim's Family Members Support Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/86-death-penalty-support-highest-ever.html

23) Vast Majority of Americans Think McVeigh Should Be Executed, May 2, 2001,

24)  Path to execution swifter, more certain in Va. , FRANK GREEN, Richmond Post-Dispatch, December 4, 2011 Page: A1 Section: News Edition: Final 
http://www.timesdispatch.com/archive/path-to-execution-swifter-more-certain-in-va/article_6a4bf4fc-bff8-52b5-be5b-7d2598439957.html

25)  See Virginia and California

With executions (72%) and other removals (23.4%), Virginia has cleared 95.4% of their death row cases, which would have resulted in California, now, having 47 inmates on their death row, not 737. Virginia has has 2 more executions, since this report.

Table 17, page 20,  Capital Punishment, 2013, Statistical Tables, Bureau of Justice Statistics,  December 2014, (THE LAST YEAR OF THAT DATA SET)

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Additional research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone.  
 
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts listed)
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