The state of California has the largest Death Row population of any state in the union...and they've run out of room. Because of legal hurdles, the state hasn't executed a convict in almost 10 years, leaving 750 people languishing on Death Row.
According to NPR member station KCRW:
"The capital punishment system has been in limbo since a court invalidated the state's three-drug lethal injection system nearly a decade ago. No new protocols have been developed."
Given the number of people exonerated of capital offenses over the years, due to miscarriages of justice, this has to be a good thing.
Until the criminal justice system can absolutely guarantee, beyond the slightest doubt, that a person condemned to death is actually guilty, then capital punishment is unconscionable and unacceptable in any civilized society.
And that's before we go into the highly questionable moral and ethical basis for allowing the state to put citizens to death.
"Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the Legislature for more than $3 million to open 100 new cells for condemned men at San Quentin Prison. The request is included in Brown's $113 billion budget proposal.
"The governor says prison officials should use cells that are opening up as lower level inmates are released under a new law passed by state voters last year. The majority of the money would go to increase staff, since condemned inmates require more security.
This is a 'holding pattern' and an unsatisfactory one at that. However, until the United States properly re-examines the whole notion of putting criminals to death (given the proven unreliability of the judicial system), I guess it'll have to do for now.
But it is a matter of shame that the only countries in the world that execute more of their citizens than the United States are China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Does America really want to be a member of that rogues gallery?