California Examining Whether Death penalty is Adminstered Equally

Prompted in part by the research of Santa Barbara defense lawyer Robert Sanger, the state Senate has taken the first step in creating a commission to study flaws in the criminal justice system that may have resulted in wrongful convictions and executions. "Why take the chance of executing someone who's innocent? After the study is completed, if they find the system works fine, that everyone gets appropriate defense representation, and that there's no problems with jail-house snitches or racial disparities -- that their system is perfect -- then get the clock ticking again on executions. But that's tough to do because you can't come up with a perfect system." In a 23-to-12 vote last week, the state Senate approved a resolution by outgoing majority leader Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, to establish the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice to determine what aspects of the system are broken and to find ways to fix them.  Mr. Sanger, a board member of Death Penalty Focus, said "We also need to look at the fact that people who are actually given the death penalty in California are exclusively poor, disproportionately of color, and disproportionately mentally ill. You have a marginalized group of people who are sentenced to death in California, and that cannot be right." [more ]