The death penalty is the punishment of execution administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. On November 6, 2012, Californians voted to retain the death penalty in the state. The proposition narrowly lost by a vote of 52.8% to 47.2% (The Guardian). Californians should reconsider the vote to repeal the death penalty because it is unnecessary and costly. Legal executions in California were first authorized by the Criminal Practices Act of 1851 (CDCR). The first form of execution was hanging, but was replaced by lethal gas in 1937. Lethal gas was used for another thirty years before running into a moratorium due to State and United States Supreme Court decisions. In 1972, William Henry Furman was tried for murder and pleaded
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Inmates were taking of death row and resentenced. This particular case produced an effective moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States. However, on November 7, 1972 California Proposition 17 was passed. It allowed the death penalty to be reintroduced in California. Although the death penalty was revived, no executions were implemented until 1992. Then in 1977, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the use of the death penalty imposed on Troy Leon Gregg. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Court held a 7-2 decision that the death penalty did not violate the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments at all. In 1978, Proposition 7 was passed and I increased the penalties for first and second degree murders. It allowed the death sentence to be used as a punishment, if convicted. Donald Heller, the ballot initiative writer, believed that the “ultimate punishment” would save money and end victim grief with finality (Daily News). In 2006, United States District Court Judge Jeremy D. Fogel halted the execution of Michael Morales. Morales would have been the fourteenth inmate to be executed on death row, but because complaints about the three-drug lethal injections administered had surfaced, the execution was paused. If the drugs were administered wrong, it
Inmates were taking of death row and resentenced. This particular case produced an effective moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States. However, on November 7, 1972 California Proposition 17 was passed. It allowed the death penalty to be reintroduced in California. Although the death penalty was revived, no executions were implemented until 1992. Then in 1977, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the use of the death penalty imposed on Troy Leon Gregg. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Court held a 7-2 decision that the death penalty did not violate the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments at all. In 1978, Proposition 7 was passed and I increased the penalties for first and second degree murders. It allowed the death sentence to be used as a punishment, if convicted. Donald Heller, the ballot initiative writer, believed that the “ultimate punishment” would save money and end victim grief with finality (Daily News). In 2006, United States District Court Judge Jeremy D. Fogel halted the execution of Michael Morales. Morales would have been the fourteenth inmate to be executed on death row, but because complaints about the three-drug lethal injections administered had surfaced, the execution was paused. If the drugs were administered wrong, it