A system that punishes us all

Re “Death penalty rarely means case closed,” May 18

As a former chief attorney for the state public defender’s office, I can attest that California has wasted millions of dollars attempting to apply capital punishment to persons who end up sitting on death row for decades.

It is repugnant to slash funding for education, healthcare and environmental programs when the state continues to spend millions of dollars on an inefficacious capital punishment system.

I urge the Legislature to abolish capital punishment, leaving in place the alternate sentence of life without possibility of parole.

When a death verdict is appealed, the costs skyrocket for every case. It is far less costly to try special-circumstances cases without the separate penalty phase of the trial required when capital punishment is an option. The enormous expense of this system simply cannot be justified given the present economic crisis.

Christine M. Mason

Scotts Valley, Calif.

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I support capital punishment, but our system definitely needs some reform.

If the state doesn’t change it and speed up the process, we should do away with it. We are wasting millions of dollars on these convicted felons when we really should be saving money by not having them sit in jail anymore.

Chris Premac

Coto de Caza

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The curious case of death row inmate Michael Ray Burgener is a perfect example of what is wrong with the death penalty: It gives killers too much power over our lives. They get us to spend exorbitant amounts of money trying to execute them, and we let them make killers out of us. Give them life without parole and put the money that supports the expensive capital punishment system back into our communities.

And as for making killers out of us, I prefer not to let someone have that power over me.

Nancy Oliveira

San Francisco