The California Democratic Party has announced it will add abolition of the death penalty to their party platform

California is the largest state in the USA. It is the world’s eighth largest economy. It is also broke.

The California Democratic Party has decided that there are better ways to spend tax-payers money than maintaining the country’s largest death row, where a staggering 700 people currently languish.

Capital punishment in the USA is eye-wateringly expensive. To prosecute a capital case costs vastly more than a case in which life in prison is the maximum sentence. It is estimated that California would save around $1bn over five years by repealing the death penalty. Simply to house those on death row costs an extra $90,000 per person per year. Oh, and if it keeps capital punishment on the books California would also need to spend $400m building a new death row

Democratic candidates aren’t required to adopt policies in the Party platform, but abolition will be the official line for elections later this year. Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Attorney General are just some of the posts up for grabs in November.

Having abolition included in the Party platform is a considerable victory for the various non-partisan abolitionist organizations that have been pursuing this as a goal for ten years. The cause has been helped considerably by the appointment of John Burton, who is personally opposed to the death penalty, as Chairman on the California Democratic Party. 

The hope is that abolition will gradually become an unremarkable, mainstream idea in US politics. It is well known to those already in favour of abolition that expense is the least damning indictment against the death penalty. It is also an arbitrarily imposed law biased against the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society. At every turn the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, something expressly prohibited by the US Constitution.

However the chances of Democrats being elected to the major public offices in California are fairly slim. And not all candidates will toe the party line. The Democratic front-runner for Governor Jerry Brown, for example, is pro-death penalty. There are more registered Democrats in California than Republicans. According to the Public Policy Institute of California 45% of registered voters are Democrats whereas 31% are registered as Republicans. Yet Republicans are famously successful at mobilizing their electoral base to get out and vote, in stark contrast to Democrats. The Obama effect has changed this to some extent recently, yet the tea-party backlash has revived Republican support in many areas.

Decisions are made by those who show up. If you’re registered in California, get out and vote for your anti-death penalty candidate in November. Abolition of the death penalty should be on state party platforms throughout the country. Dollars and lives are being wasted every day in those states that continue to maintain capital punishment.