Save Money and Save Lives By Voting Yes on Prop 34

Veda Veach

Since 1967, only 13 people have been executed in California despite the fact that our state houses the largest death row population in the country – accounting for 22% of all death row inmates. Our state’s death penalty is broken beyond repair, with most death row inmates dying of old age and only after decades of taxpayer-financed appeals. With an average of 25 years of legal proceedings, families of crime victims are forced to relive their pain again and again. Some people suggest the problem could be "fixed" by tightening up the appeals process but even Supreme Court justices who support the death penalty say that is virtually impossible in California and definitely more expensive than a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

We need to protect the public and we need to invest in a working legal system. That is why I am voting YES on Proposition 34 this November.

Prop. 34 is tough justice that actually works for everyone. It keeps heinous killers in prison until they die, with no hope of ever getting out. They are required to work and pay restitution to a victim’s compensation fund, whereas now, deathrow inmates just sit in individual cells doing nothing.

Although many people believe the death penalty is cheaper than life in prison without the possibility of parole, it is quite the opposite. A study by Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law Professor Paula Mitchell shows nearly $1 billion would be saved in five years if we were to replace the death penalty. Prop. 34 stops the waste on endless appeals and special death row housing.

Culver City is facing a serious fiscal crisis – we cannot afford to divert more funds away from police departments and our schools. I was shocked to learn that 46% of murders and 56% of rapes go unsolved in California each year. Any amount we continue tospend on the death penalty in California is money we’re not using for DNAtesting, crime labs and other tools to help cops solve those rapes and murders. Prop. 34 directs $100 million for these crime-solving tools.

While money is a big part of making justice work for everyone, so is making absolutely sure that we never execute an innocent person. More than 100 innocent people have been sentenced to death in the U.S., and some have been executed. That is a mistake we cannot afford to make. As long as the death penalty is in place, we will always run that terrible risk.

Ron Briggs was a lead proponent of the 1978 death penalty initiative. Don Heller is a lawyer who wrote California’s death penalty law. Jeanne Woodford is former Warden of San Quentin and carried out four executions. All three supported the death penalty, but having realized that the system is not working, they have changed their opinions.

We need to stop the waste, hold murderers accountable for their actions, and ensure we don’t run the risk of ever executing an innocent person in California. Please join Mr. Briggs, Mr. Heller, Ms. Woodford and me in voting to replace the death penalty with justice that works for everyone.

Veda Veach is a board member of the University ReligiousConference at UCLA, board member of Interfaith Communities United for Justiceand Peace (ICUJP),  and an active member of Culver-Palms United MethodistChurch.