Voters Pass “Mend Not End” Capital Punishment

Sacramento, CA — A ballot measure that called for a faster appeals process for death row inmates apparently was appealing to voters as after the final tally on Tuesday it passed with 51 percent support.

Voters rejected a measure to scrap the state’s death penalty by 54 percent on Nov. 8^th. Backers used the slogan “mend not end” capital punishment after suffering defeat in 2012 with 52 percent of voters rejected a similar repeal measure. Although a September Pew Research Center poll showed support for the death penalty at its lowest level in 40 years across the county and a pattern of states abolishing it in recent years, California joined two conservative states, Nebraska and Oklahoma in support of capital punishment on Election Day.

Some death penalty opponents have already asked the California Supreme Court to block measure from taking effect, which supporters call a frivolous stall tactic to delay executions that could otherwise resume next year. More than 900 convicted killers were sentenced to death row since the state’s death penalty was reinstated, but only 13 have been executed since 1978. The last execution by lethal injection was more than a decade ago. Currently 750 killers are on California’s death row.