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\n\t\tA California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officer opens the gate for an incarcerated person leaving the exercise yard at San Quentin State Prison\u2019s death row in San Quentin on Aug. 15, 2016. Photo by Justin Sullivan, Getty Images\t\t<\/p>\n
By Priscilla Ocen<\/p>\n
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. <\/p>\n Every person sentenced to death in California over the last five years has been Black or Latino. The last white person sentenced to death was in mid-2021.<\/p>\n That fact is part of a pattern of racial bias in our state\u2019s death penalty system. It\u2019s time courts confront this persistent, deadly racial bias.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two years ago, the Office of the State Public Defender and several civil rights organizations took the unusual step of filing what amounts to a civil lawsuit against the state\u2019s death penalty. They filed it directly with the California Supreme Court after lower courts, for decades, failed to address racial bias claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their petition draws on more than a dozen empirical studies showing California\u2019s capital punishment is administered in a discriminatory manner which violates equal protection guarantees in the state Constitution.<\/p>\n In May, the California Supreme Court ruled that their challenge could move forward in Sacramento Superior Court.<\/p>\n The data presented in the case comes from 40 years of research. It shows that Black defendants are up to eight times more likely \u2014 and\u00a0Latino defendants are up to six times more likely \u2014 to be sentenced to death<\/a> than other defendants. Death sentences are also more likely to be imposed<\/a> if the victims are white than if they are Black or Latino.<\/p>\n Racial bias also leads to greater risk of wrongful conviction and execution: Since 1981, eight Californians have been exonerated<\/a> and released from death row \u2014 all were men of color.<\/p>\n Prejudice was one reason Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium<\/a> on executions. His 2019 executive order<\/a> stated, \u201cDeath sentences are unevenly and unfairly applied to people of color.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Of those sentenced to die<\/a> since the moratorium was imposed, 25 of the 29 are people of color.<\/p>\n A moratorium by the governor can be overturned<\/a> by a successor, but a clear ruling by the courts can determine whether the profound racial bias in the administration of the death penalty makes it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n For decades, individuals like Troy Ashmus and his legal team tried to persuade courts to act but were stymied by utter dysfunction.\u00a0Ashmus was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986. He filed a federal habeas petition asserting an 8th Amendment challenge to California\u2019s death penalty law in 1998, presenting extensive evidence of racial bias.\u00a0<\/p>\n Years of procedural delays followed. Nearly 22 years later, in 2020, Ashmus finally went before a superior court judge. But before the judge could rule, Ashmus died of COVID-19. His claim was dismissed without a ruling.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Ashmus\u2019 case was a rarity. He had a legal team, with funding to challenge his death sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the 550 people currently sentenced to death in California, 70% don\u2019t have an attorney or funding for their appeals or petitions.\u00a0Even if an individual defendant manages to raise state constitutional claims in their capital case, resolution by the California Supreme Court would likely take more than a decade.\u00a0Chronic underfunding and an aging appellate bar have produced a shortage of attorneys qualified to handle capital appeals, so it often takes years for appellate counsel to be appointed.\u00a0<\/p>\n And with more than 130 fully briefed capital appeals already pending, and dozens more in earlier stages, the backlog of death penalty cases at the Supreme Court alone guarantees extraordinary delays.<\/p>\n Not only is this system dysfunctional, it\u2019s also costly. Since 1978, California has spent $6 billion on it and has executed 13 people. The last execution was carried out Jan. 17, 2006.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grave constitutional questions raised in this civil rights petition cannot wait decades to be answered. Delay in this context is not neutral. While the petition remains pending, the stark evidence of racial disparities continues to accumulate.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n To comment please go to one of these social media platforms:<\/p>\n Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DavisVanguard<\/a><\/p>\n LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/peoples-vanguard-of-davis-inc\/<\/a><\/p>\n Instagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/davisvanguard\/<\/a><\/p>\n X: https:\/\/x.com\/davisvanguard<\/a><\/p>\n Bluesky: https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/vanguardnewsgroup.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe <\/a>to the Vanguard News letters.\u00a0 To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org\/donate<\/a> or give directly through ActBlue<\/a>.\u00a0 Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.<\/p>\n Categories: Breaking News<\/a> Everyday Injustice<\/a>