California Law Moves Toward Death Penalty Moratorium

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today about the California state legislature, "An effort to suspend the death penalty was narrowly approved by a legislative committee Tuesday as proponents argued the state's legal system could execute an innocent person.

Igniting a legislative debate on capital punishment, Democrats advanced a bill that calls for a death penalty moratorium for two years as a commission studies how best to prevent wrongful convictions. The commission is expected to make recommendations for changes in the legal system to the Legislature by 2008. "

"One person killed by the government unfairly is way too many," commented California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) to the Chronicle.

The case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, an author and Nobel Peace and Literature Prizes nominee, brought capital punishment back under serious re-examination by Californians. Williams, a rehabilitated, convicted murderer, was put to death on December 13, 2005, by lethal injection by the state of California.

For complete background info on the death penalty and capital punishment (including a eye-opening list of countries and states that do and don't permit it), see my article Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty.
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