Jurist Decries Death Row Backlog

The chief justice of the California Supreme Court said the state’s death penalty has become “dysfunctional” and blamed lawmakers for looking the other way as 650 condemned inmates idle on death row.

Ronald George said in an interview with the Associated Press that the Legislature’s inability to adequately fund capital punishment has led to a de facto moratorium on executions in California.

“I think that there are many, many things in the eyes of legislators that have greater priority,” said George, who marks his 10th anniversary as chief justice today. “That’s the problem. People want to have the death penalty, but they don’t want to pay everything it costs to have it implemented in a judicious manner.”

Although California has the nation’s largest death row, there are no executions in sight as a federal judge considers whether the three-drug cocktail used to put inmates to death in the state is unconstitutionally cruel.

A formal death penalty moratorium proposed by some lawmakers failed to get out of an Assembly committee in January. The Legislature’s only recent action has been to approve $223 million last year for a new and larger death row with 768 cells.

Lawmakers seem to want it both ways, George said. Like a majority of their constituents, they publicly support the death penalty. But their inactivity has contributed to the malaise that leaves death row inmates languishing for decades at San Quentin State Prison.

“The system is very dysfunctional,” said George, a 66-year-old Republican who was appointed in 1991 by then-Gov. Pete Wilson and elected chief justice on May 1, 1996.

But while he pointed the finger at Sacramento, some lawmakers said George has done little to relieve the backlog.

“He’s not said, ‘It’s going too slow, we need more money to speed it up,’ ” Assembly Budget Committee Chairman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) said of George.

But others say George has a point.

“Everyone wants to say, ‘I support the death penalty,’ but they also say, ‘It’s OK to have a de facto moratorium,’ ” said Assemblyman Joe Nation (D-San Rafael), who opposes capital punishment. “It’s a boondoggle.”

George would not say how much money he thinks is needed, but ticked off a wish list of programs he’d like to see funded.

He said the Supreme Court needs several new staff attorneys to process the capital cases, many of which involve thousands of pages of transcripts. He also wants lawmakers to increase hourly payments to lawyers handling capital appeals, as the condemned usually wait years before counsel is appointed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, said the governor strongly supports the death penalty and would be willing to entertain proposals to speed up executions.

“The governor would support ways to make the system more efficient and responsive to victims that would not jeopardize the integrity of the legal review process,” Thompson said.

Since California voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978, 13 inmates have been put to death. Meanwhile, four times as many condemned prisoners have died of natural causes, suicide or in homicides. By comparison, Texas, the nation’s most frequent executioner, has carried out at least 355 killings in roughly the same period.

George said it’s up to the people and their elected officials to decide whether or not they want to continue having a death penalty in California.

“This court has upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty,” he said. “If California wants a death penalty, we need to ensure adequate funding so we don’t have these terribly long delays that are a disservice to the administration of justice.”