Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: California’s Death Penalty Is Reconsidered Again
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 4 years ago on
June 7, 2021

Share

California’s evolution into a cultural melange in the latter half of the 20th century posed a question that still looms: Can such a complex society achieve the broad social consensus that’s a prerequisite for effective governance?

One can apply the question to just about any specific issue that has defied resolution. Two obvious examples are our never-ending conflicts over the distribution of water — raging anew due to drought — and housing. But there are many others, demonstrating that the only constant about California’s cultural values is that they constantly change.

Chessman ‘The Red Light Bandit’

Dan Walters

Opinion

A bellwether of California’s ever-shifting cultural landscape is capital punishment. The issue has been simmering, and occasionally boiling over, for more than seven decades, beginning in 1948 when Caryl Chessman, dubbed the Red Light Bandit, was sentenced to death for a series of violent robberies and rapes in the Los Angeles area.

Chessman professed his innocence and became a cause célèbre for those who believed that capital punishment was immoral or at least unfairly applied. Before and after his execution, there were countless newspaper and magazine articles, at least one play and a biographical movie about the Chessman case.

Chessman himself wrote four books while his post-conviction appeals bounced around the courts and finally ended in 1960 when then-Gov. Pat Brown — a death penalty opponent —refused to block his execution, even spurning a plea from his son, future Gov. Jerry Brown.

Debate Over the Death Penalty

Ever since, the death penalty has ridden a rollercoaster, the subject of multiple battles in the courts, in the Legislature and in ballot measures. Sometimes, federal courts and the state Supreme Court have ruled against it, both generally and in specific cases, but voters have tended to support it, most recently in 2016 by rejecting a ballot measure to abolish it.

Despite that public support, when Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019 he ordered prison authorities not to execute any of the more than 700 inmates on San Quentin Prison’s death row, declaring capital punishment to be racially biased and morally repugnant.

More recently, Newsom has ordered a new investigation into a case eerily similar to that of Caryl Chessman — the death sentence imposed on Kevin Cooper after conviction for four Southern California murders in 1983. Cooper, who is Black and asserts his innocence, has become, like Chessman, a symbolic cause for those who oppose the death penalty.

Newsom assigned the investigation to a private law firm that has represented Death Row inmates, signaling that he may overturn Cooper’s conviction.

Finally, the state Supreme Court once again faces the issue in the form of a challenge to how juries decide whether convicted killers should be sentenced to death. Last week, the court heard oral arguments over whether juries should be required to use the same “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard in penalty decisions as they must use in convictions.

Support for Capital Punishment Diminishing

Were the court to impose the requested standard, it probably would be a de facto moratorium on executions even though California’s death penalty would remain in law.

Once, not too many years ago, contests for governor and other high offices could hinge on the issue. In 1986, three state Supreme Court justices were ousted because they were deemed to be anti-death penalty.

However, polls indicate that California voters’ support for capital punishment, last expressed in 2016, is slowly diminishing.

California has not had an execution since 2006 and whether by gubernatorial decree or judicial decision, it may be the last one — at least until and unless cultural tides shift again.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
[activecampaign form=31]

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

DON'T MISS

Judge Partly Blocks Trump Order Seeking to Overhaul US Elections

DON'T MISS

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

DON'T MISS

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

DON'T MISS

Don’t Miss Out! Tower District’s Porchfest Festival Is Saturday

DON'T MISS

Shooter in 2022 Chicago-Area Parade Massacre Sentenced to Life in Prison

DON'T MISS

Fresno Stabbing Leaves Son Dead, Father Charged With Murder

DON'T MISS

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Transgender Military Ban, for Now

DON'T MISS

California Judge Blocks Trump’s Bid to Cut Funds to ‘Sanctuary’ Cities

DON'T MISS

Town Hall on Trump’s First 100 Days Will Air Next Week

UP NEXT

Judge Partly Blocks Trump Order Seeking to Overhaul US Elections

UP NEXT

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

UP NEXT

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

UP NEXT

Don’t Miss Out! Tower District’s Porchfest Festival Is Saturday

UP NEXT

Shooter in 2022 Chicago-Area Parade Massacre Sentenced to Life in Prison

UP NEXT

Fresno Stabbing Leaves Son Dead, Father Charged With Murder

UP NEXT

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Transgender Military Ban, for Now

UP NEXT

California Judge Blocks Trump’s Bid to Cut Funds to ‘Sanctuary’ Cities

UP NEXT

Town Hall on Trump’s First 100 Days Will Air Next Week

UP NEXT

Kristi Noem’s Handbag Was Snatched From Beneath Her Chair, DHS Says

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

2 hours ago

Don’t Miss Out! Tower District’s Porchfest Festival Is Saturday

2 hours ago

Shooter in 2022 Chicago-Area Parade Massacre Sentenced to Life in Prison

2 hours ago

Fresno Stabbing Leaves Son Dead, Father Charged With Murder

2 hours ago

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Transgender Military Ban, for Now

2 hours ago

California Judge Blocks Trump’s Bid to Cut Funds to ‘Sanctuary’ Cities

2 hours ago

Town Hall on Trump’s First 100 Days Will Air Next Week

2 hours ago

Kristi Noem’s Handbag Was Snatched From Beneath Her Chair, DHS Says

3 hours ago

Interior Department to Fast-Track Oil, Gas and Mining Projects

3 hours ago

Survey: Californians Blame Utility Company Spending, Profits for High Electricity Rates

3 hours ago

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

A Tulare man was sentenced Wednesday to four years and four months in state prison for a high-speed DUI crash that seriously injured two wom...

43 minutes ago

Maxwell Barrios, 28, of Tulare, was sentenced to over four years in state prison on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, for a 2023 DUI crash that seriously injured two women, including one who required a partial arm amputation. (Tulare County DA)
43 minutes ago

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

People vote in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Election Day in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., November 5, 2024. (REUTERS/Megan Jelinger/File Photo)
1 hour ago

Judge Partly Blocks Trump Order Seeking to Overhaul US Elections

Forensic technicians stand at a cordoned area during a media tour by Jalisco's Attorney General Office at Izaguirre Ranch, which activists have called a cartel-run "extermination camp," in Teuchitlan, Jalisco state, Mexico March 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Ivan Arias/File Photo)
1 hour ago

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to reporters about Wednesday's deadly midair collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Eagle flight 5342 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo)
2 hours ago

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

2 hours ago

Don’t Miss Out! Tower District’s Porchfest Festival Is Saturday

Robert E. Crimo III. arrives for his trial in Judge Victoria A. Rossetti’s courtroom in Waukegan, Illinois, U.S., March 3, 2025. (Nam Y. Huh/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo)
2 hours ago

Shooter in 2022 Chicago-Area Parade Massacre Sentenced to Life in Prison

Bryan Blackman (right), 52, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder after admitting to fatally stabbing his son, Javoeea Blackman, 25, during a disturbance outside a Fresno apartment on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Fresno PD)
2 hours ago

Fresno Stabbing Leaves Son Dead, Father Charged With Murder

2 hours ago

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Transgender Military Ban, for Now

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend