Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional

California Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional

On July 16, 2014, a Federal judge in Orange County ruled that California’s death penalty violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court reasoned that the random few who will be executed “will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive and deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary.” The CourtThis is the first time that a judge has found California’s current system to be unconstitutional. All executions have been stayed since 2006 when the current lethal injection protocol was found to be unconstitutional. This of course will not be the last word on the matters as parties on both sides of the issue are preparing for a fight.

Capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court in 1976. It was reinstated by the state legislature the following year. Since then, 13 inmates have been executed in California, most recently Clarence Ray Allen in 2006. An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that the state spent $308 million on each execution.

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