In California, Killers Sit on 'Symbolic' Death Row for Decades, Costing Billions (Ed Barnes.March 22, 2010. FOXNews.com):
"The death penalty is purely symbolic in California," says Natasha Minsker, who just completed a study of the death penalty in California for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. With almost 700 people on death row in the state, the study found not only that maintaining a prison and legal system to support the death penalty cost the state billions of dollars, but that, for all the money spent, the penalty is rarely used. Since 1977 only 13 people have been executed. During the same period, 59 death row inmates died of old age or other infirmities..."
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The last person executed by the State in California: Stanley Tookie Williams III (December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005).
CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) has a good bit of information regarding the death penalty in California at their website: History of Capital Punishment in California ... State of California Lethal Injection Protocol ... California Revises Lethal Injection Protocol (etcetera) ...
