Death Penalty Repeal Qualifies for November Ballot

An initiative that would replace the death penalty in California with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has qualified for the November ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Monday.

What backers have dubbed as the Savings Accountability and Full Enforcement California Act exceeded the 555,236 projected valid signatures need to quality for the ballot by the random sampling method of verifying signatures, Bowen said.

The measure required 504,760 valid signatures from registered voters -- 5 percent of the total votes cast in the 2010 gubernatorial election -- to qualify for the ballot.

Monday was the deadline for election officials in California's 58 counties to submit their signature counts to the Secretary of State's Office.

The initiative would apply retroactively to people already sentenced to death and require convicted killers to work while imprisoned, with their wages applied to any victim restitution fines or orders against them.

It would set aside $100 million in savings for DNA testing and fingerprint analysis in an attempt to help solve more homicide and rape cases.

Passage of the measure would result in net savings to the state and counties of "the high tens of millions of dollars annually on a statewide basis," according to an analysis prepared by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor and Director of Finance Ana J. Matosantos.

"In November, voters will have the first opportunity ever to decide between the death penalty and a sentence of life in prison with absolutely no chance of parole," said initiative proponent Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin State Prison warden. "Our system is broken, expensive and it always will carry the grave risk of a mistake."

McGregor W. Scott, chairman of Californians for Justice and Public Safety, which opposes the initiative, used its qualifying for the ballot to criticize the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the initiative's backers.

"Californians are smart," Scott said. "They know the ACLU is the reason why California's capital punishment system is costly and broken. Frivolous appeals, endless delays and the ongoing re-victimization of California is their status quo.

"Now they think they can fool voters by promoting an initiative that would reward cop killers and child murderers under the guise of alleged cost saving. Voters know better. They oppose the ACLU, support the death penalty and
will not be fooled by hollow promises and political rhetoric."

California's death penalty law was approved by voters in 1978 and has resulted in 13 executions, the most recent in 2006.

The initiative that would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is the the fifth measure to qualify for the November ballot, following an $11.1 billion bond measure to upgrade California's water system, measures to prohibit the government from deducting union dues from government employee paychecks that would be used for
political purposes and to allow auto insurance rates to be based on a person's
history of coverage and a referendum on the state Senate redistricting plan.