On December 13, 2022, Governor Brown commuted the capital sentences of all 17 death row prisoners and instructed the department of corrections to begin dismantling the state’s execution chamber. Thirty-seven states — nearly three quarters of the country — have now abolished the death penalty or not carried out an execution in more than a decade. In their Left and the Law segment, Jan Haaken and Mike Snedeker look at the historical decline in support for capital punishment and what this portends for life without the possibility of parole, another sentencing feature of the US carceral system.
Image courtesy of Pix4Free.org, licensed under Creative Commons.
- KBOO