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| Slow to Execute, California Sees Death Row Swell |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 11/15/2004 |
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Just the other day, Marc Klaas received a letter explaining the latest delay in executing the man responsible for his 12-year-old daughter Polly Klaas' brutal 1993 kidnap and murder, a case that shocked California. Such letters are commonplace in California. The state has condemned 629 criminals to die since the California legislature re-enacted the death penalty in 1977, but it very rarely metes out society's ultimate punishment. In fact, the state has only put 10 people to death since resuming executions in 1992. So steadily are death row ranks swelling in the nation's most populous state that California is planning a controversial $220 million expansion of its only prison for the condemned at San Quentin north of San Francisco. Richard Allen Davis, Polly Klaas' killer, is housed in the area of San Quentin designated for its most brutal murderers, awaiting the conclusion of appeals that go through the California Supreme Court and federal courts. Past history suggests it could be another decade or more before the death penalty truly threatens Davis. The last man executed, Stephen Wayne Anderson, had been on death row for 20 years before his 2002 death. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the average time nationwide between sentencing and execution from 1977 to 2002 was just over 10 years with a total of 820 prisoners executed. |
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