CALIFORNIA DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM 'DYSFUNCTIONAL': REPORT

July 1, 2008: California's death penalty system is close to collapse, an independent commission said in a report that calls for judicial reform in the most populous US state.
Without recommending the abolition of capital punishment, the report said that in February, California had 670 inmates on death row, compared to 3,263 in all the United States, and that 20 people were condemned to death by the state each year.
Due to the appeals process, staff or budget shortfalls, more than 20 years go by in California between a death sentence and its execution, said the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice (CCFAJ) in its report. The average delay in other US states between sentence and execution is 12 years.
California's Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George said in the report that unless the state's death row system is reformed, the backlogs in post conviction proceedings will continue to grow 'until the system falls of its own weight.'
'While some opponents of the death penalty might welcome such a prospect,' the report added, 'the members of this Commission believe that doing nothing would be the worst possible course. 
'The failures in the administration of California’s death penalty law create cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law, increase the duration and costs of confining death row inmates, weaken any possible deterrent benefits of capital punishment, increase the emotional trauma experienced by murder victims’ families, and delay the resolution of meritorious capital appeals.'   (Sources: Agence France Presse, 01/07/2008)