Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Death penalty versus life without parole

I want to add a point or two to Mr. Stone's answer.

The fact that California has been slow to execute condemned prisoners does not mean Peterson, if he is sentenced to death, would never be executed.

The main reason there are so many inmates on death row is that virtually none of them can afford counsel and there are too few attorneys willing to accept court appointments to handle death penalty appeals. These inmates wait many years before they get an attorney and can even begin their appeals. Peterson, of course, has one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the state working for him. Even if his current attorney declines to handle the appeal, there will likely be some volunteers to take this particular case. There may even be people willing to help foot the bills for a privately-retained attorney.

Appeals of death penalty cases do take a long time even once they get started, but that is because such cases are handled much more thoroughly than most. Defense counsel will often file briefs several hundred pages long, plus equally lengthy habeas corpus petitions. These documents may contain scores of different arguments attacking both the judgment of guilt and the death penalty. The Attorney General must then respond adequately to such briefs. Both sides often need to conduct extensive factual research and interview many witnesses before they file their briefs, and this takes time. Given that a person's life is at stake, I think the additional care is appropriate.

In California, death-penalty cases bypass the Courts of Appeal and go directly to the state Supreme Court, which must decide each of them. Once the briefing is done, the Supreme Court has to evaluate the issues and hold an oral argument. A decision can then take quite a bit of additional time.

It is rare for one of these appeals to overturn a verdict of guilt, but decisions which reverse the death sentence are actually quite common. Even if the Supreme Court affirms the sentence, there are still many other steps for counsel to take and these take a long time as well.

Keep in mind that Peterson is young. Assuming he gets the death penalty and that it survives all court challenges, he will probably still be around when the time comes for his sentence to be carried out.

One other point -- Mr. Stone mentioned the death row at San Quentin, but only male inmates are held there. The state has a separate death row at a different prison for female inmates.

Re: Death penalty versus life without parole

All death penalty inmates in CA go to Condemned Row at San Quentin. The prisoners are in solitary confinement awaiting the outcome of numerous appeals, they receive meals in their cells and are given limited exercise privileges. Probably Peterson's contact with other inmates would be very limited. Life-without-parole prisoners are housed in the general population at one of California's many prisons, such as Corcoran or Folsom, and they have generally the same privileges as other prisoners. Peterson would have a job, and would presumably be free to receive visitors and packages, and to interact with others, assuming one of the other prisoners doesn't stab him for being a baby killer.