The SAFE initiative to abolish the California death penalty received enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Sacramento Bee, 4/24/12. Add former California Attorney General and Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp to the list of those supporting the initiative:
In November, by supporting the SAFE California death penalty initiative, we can put the money saved toward apprehending the guilty and making our state a safer place for our families, while providing public protection by making those now subject to the death penalty go to life in prison without parole.
The system is broken and wasteful. Former Chief Justice of California Ronald George called it "dysfunctional." Newly appointed Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye agrees, telling the Los Angeles Times that keeping the death penalty structure as it exists now is the "worst possible option" and that it is "not working." Cantil-Sakauye is a former prosecutor herself, and she knows that time now given to death penalty cases could be better spent on the beleaguered courts that she oversees.