WHEREAS, the Savings Accountability and Full Enforcement (SAFE) for California ballot initiative would replace the death penalty in California with life without the possibility of parole,
WHEREAS, the SAFE California Act will appear on the November 2012 ballot as Proposition 34,
WHEREAS, “Executing the Will of Voters?: A Roadmap to Mend or End the California Legislature’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle,” a study conducted by U.S. District Judge Arthur Alacon and Loyola Law School Los Angeles professor Paula Mitchell, determined that the State of California currently spends more than $184 million each year on its capital punishment system,
WHEREAS, California spends this exorbitant amount of money to retain the death penalty although the state has executed only 13 people in 33 years,
WHEREAS, 46% of murders and 56% of rapes in California go unsolved each year,
WHEREAS, Proposition 34 seeks to balance California’s spending and public safety priorities by directing $100 million currently being spent on the death penalty in California to law enforcement agencies to help solve open homicide and rape cases,
WHEREAS, Proposition 34 also requires those convicted of murder to work and pay restitution into a state victim compensation fund,
WHEREAS, NACDL has a long-standing, vigorous, and vocal opposition to the imposition of the death penalty for crime,
WHEREAS, Proposition 34 advances the principles of justice championed by NACDL,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, NACDL endorses Proposition 34 as a more effective, just, and cost-efficient method of preventing, solving, and punishing crime.
San Francisco, CA
