California Anti-Death Penalty Initiative Qualifies for Ballot

The SAFE California Act, which would end the death penalty in California, has been approved for the November ballot, according to its backers.  This could actually be the year capital punishment ends in California, because we’ve seen a growing number of institutional voices speaking up about what a massive waste of money the death penalty is for this cash-strapped state.

Critics of California’s death penalty, lately, include not only California’s new chief justice, who famously referred to the  status quo as the “worst possible option,” but also Ron Briggs, one of the original architects of our death penalty law, who has admitted that the law “simply doesn’t work” and has become “fiscally ruinous” for the state.

Under the proposed change to the law, the death penalty would be replaced with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.  Projected savings from this change: $100 million per year.