Appeals court rejects California death penalty challenge
LOS ANGELES -- California's death penalty survived a legal challenge Thursday when a federal appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that had found it was unconstitutional because of excessive delays.
Without discussing the merits of a murderer's claims, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court was barred from considering a novel constitutional theory that found delays in carrying out executions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled last year that California's death penalty was an empty promise with unpredictable delays that led to arbitrary and rare executions that violated the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.
More than 900 people have been sentenced to death in California since 1978, but only 13 have been executed.
The appeals court did not address the validity of claims by a Los Angeles man sentenced to die for the 1992 rape and murder of his girlfriend's mother because the lower court applied a new constitutional theory instead of federal law that existed at the time of his conviction.
"Many agree... that California's capital punishment system is dysfunctional and that the delay between sentencing and execution in California is extraordinary," Justice Susan Graber wrote. "But 'the purpose of federal (review) is to ensure that state convictions comply with the federal law in existence at the time the conviction became final, and not to provide a mechanism for the continuing re-examination of final judgments based upon later emerging legal doctrine."
The unanimous ruling by three justices appointed by Democrats comes as the state revamps its execution procedures and supporters and opponents of the death penalty take to the streets to get dueling referendums on the state ballot next year.
In October, law enforcement officials and family members of murder victims called for the state's death penalty system to be reformed, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Onetime NFL player Kermit Alexander was among them. A gang member killed his mother and three other relatives.
"He put three shots into my mother's head," said Alexander choking back tears. The gang member -- namely Tiequon Aundray Cox -- was sentenced to death in 1986 and is still on death row.
"And her last words were 'Please don't hurt my mother and sister,'" said Marc Klaas, speaking about his daughter Polly. Her murderer was sentenced to death 22 years ago.
"That isn't justice for my daughter," Klaas said.
Seventeen of the current 750 inmates on death row have been there for more than 30 years, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Inmate Ernest DeWayne Jones can still seek review from a larger panel of 9th Circuit justices, the U.S. Supreme Court or even return to state courts with his appeal.
While Carney's decision will not set a precedent, it could have an impact on other judges' reasoning, said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson.
It could also be the basis for appeals by killers convicted in the future, which might force an appellate court to consider whether the California death penalty is unconstitutional.
The court sidestepped that issue in the Jones case by focusing on procedural grounds.
"They stay as far away from the merits of this case as they can," Levenson said. "This doesn't answer the question of whether we have a system that violates the Eighth Amendment."
Attorney Michael Laurence argued on behalf of Jones that inmates can linger on death row 30 to 40 years and it's random which ones are executed, quoting a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that said being put to death was "as unusual as being struck by lightning."
The state attorney general's office argued that delays in carrying out executions were necessary to ensure fairness.
Decades-long delays in getting inmates to the death chamber could be addressed by voters next year if death penalty supporters gather enough signatures to put a reform measure on the ballot that calls for providing more appellate lawyers and speedier appeals.
Opponents of the death penalty are also gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would ban capital punishment in California. A similar measure was defeated by 4 percentage points in 2012.
Opposition to executions has been gaining traction in some states.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled this year that it served no legitimate purpose. Nebraska lawmakers repealed the death penalty, but death penalty advocates responded with a statewide petition drive that puts the issue to voters a year from now.
In October, the Associated Press reported Arizona tried to illegally import a lethal injection drug that's not approved in the U.S. but never obtained it after federal agents stopped the shipment at the Phoenix airport.
Jones has been on death row two decades for the murder of Julia Miller, who was stabbed 14 times. The paroled rapist was connected to her rape through his DNA and he admitted the slaying.
Jones, 51, said the state didn't provide a fair and timely review of his case, the delay exceeded that in other states, and death row's conditions constituted torture.
No executions have been carried out in California since 2006 after another federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's procedures for lethal injection.