California Voters To Decide On Death Penalty In November

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Should the death penalty be abolished in California? It's a debate voters will get to decide on when they go to the polls in November.

The initiative, called the Safe California Act, garnered close to 800,000 signatures to get it on the ballot.

Critics point out this state has only executed 13 inmates since 1978. One man who pushed for the death penalty to become law now wants voters to decide its future:

"We just can't afford it," Ron Briggs told CBS13 by phone on Monday.

That's the bottom line from the one-time staunch death penalty advocate who's now in favor of changing the death sentence in California to life in prison without the chance of parole.

"I think the fact that there's $184 million in a state program that gives money only to lawyers and criminals and delivers nothing, I think that will resonate with the voters in November," he said.

For many it will still be a tough sell. A California field poll survey shows 68 percent of registered voters support the death penalty.

But 48 percent would favor a life sentence without parole over the death penalty. That's an 11 percent increase since 2000 and offers hope to those behind the initiative.

"$4 billion to execute 13 people."

Those words are from San Quentin Warden Jeannie Woodford, who carried out four executions at a cost of $308 million each.

The state hasn't executed anyone since 2006, making the now 720 inmates on death row very expensive.

Money shouldn't be a factor, says death penalty proponent Mark Klaas, who walked out of a legislative hearing last week as he tried to push for executions to continue. They've been suspended in California after a federal judge ruled the lethal injection protocol is cruel and unusual.

Klaas says not being able to see his daughter killer put to death is cruel and unusual.

"And when they strap him to the gurney, believe me I'll be there and I'll be drinking champagne that night," he said.

Klaas has been waiting since 1996 to see Richard Allen Davis put to death.