In “California’s death penalty does not work,” retired Supreme Court attorney Jason Marks writes in the Daily Journal that during his 27 years at the court he “saw from within the system how our death penalty law is administered, and it is this experience that makes me call for its abolition.” Capital punishment “is a policy failure,” he says, “a wasteful distraction from the real problems of criminal justice — and is destined to remain so.”
Marks blames the system’s failure mainly on the length of time it takes to implement it. He asserts a “big factor” in the delay “is the lack of qualified attorneys willing to take on these cases, especially habeas corpus proceedings.” (See Justice Goodwin Liu and Evans’s statement dissenting from the denial of rehearing in the People v. Nadey (2024) 16 Cal.5th 102, 208 death penalty appeal. (See here.).) But, he says, “the fundamental reason . . . is that many death sentences handed down in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s present serious issues that the courts must hear and consider in full, even if they ultimately uphold the conviction and sentence.”
