Frequent Flyers of the Law Review know my position on the death penalty; it serves no purpose whatsoever and costs California millions of dollars. Money spent to show that we are tough on crime and to assuage victims of horrific crimes. Sacramento is the host city of an ambush killing of a police officer. Here is the story.

Sacramento Police Officer Gunned Down

Rookie police officer Tara O’Sullivan was responding to a domestic dispute in the Sacramento area when she was ambushed by lifelong criminal Adel Ramos. The killing of the well-liked rookie officer shocked the Sacramento region. Ramos pled guilty to murder, then faced the penalty phase trial to determine whether he should be sentenced to die or serve the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. This past November a jury deadlocked 11-1 on determining that Ramos should be sentenced to die. Last month the Sacramento County District Attorney elected to re-try Ramos on the death penalty charge.

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I get that. If anyone deserves to be put to death, Ramos does despite his abusive childhood. No matter the outcome of Ramos’s second penalty phase trial, he will never be put to death and the state will spend millions of dollars under it’s dysfunctional death penalty system. The system should be fixed or abolished.

Governor Gavin’s Moratorium on Executions

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In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions and closed the death chamber at San Quintin, the decrepit, still heavily used 19th century prison overlooking San Francisco Bay. That moratorium still stands although the next governor could reinstate executions. So for the time being, there will be no executions in California of convicted criminals in California.

But that’s not all, several years ago a federal district court judge determined that California’s dysfunctional death penalty system was “cruel and unusual punishment”. California now has over 600 people on its death row.

For convicted criminals that challenge the state’s death sentence, which is every single one of them, the process takes over 20, sometimes over 30, years. More than 40% of California’s death row inmates have been in limbo longer than 19 years. In one Sacramento case, a jury sentenced a murderer to death 30 years ago. He immediately became eligible for an attorney skilled at state-level habeas corpus appeals. A required part of the process. The defendant, now 84 years old, still hasn’t been assigned a qualified attorney. That case is not unusual.

Two referendums to do away with the death penalty in California were overwhelmingly rejected by voters in 2012 and 2016.

Cost of Death Penalty

California has spent $313 million on death row prisoners in the five years since Governor Gavin’s death penalty moratorium.

A Los Angeles Times study found that California execution cases, when all costs are considered, exceeds $250 million each- with average delay from conviction to execution, should there ever be an execution- of 20 years. It is now more than 20 years. Studies have documented that there is no deterrent to crime from the death penalty. That makes sense given the time lapse between when a crime is committed to when the criminal could theoretically be executed. The Times study revealed that the state’s death row prisoners cost $184 million more per year than those sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In California that money is spent without any execution in the end. Living in capital punishment must be some form of psychological torture, but can it be much worse than life in prison without a possibility of getting out?

Porter’s Thoughts

While I personally do not find death by lethal injection in egregious cases to be cruel and unusual punishment, a dysfunctional death penalty system serves no purpose. It is an injustice to spend on average $250 million on each death row inmate, only to not execute- 20 to 30 years later. California should fix the death penalty system or abolish it. There is little political appetite to fix the death penalty system nor a willingness by voters to pay that cost. Of course, currently all of this is moot given Governor Gavin’s moratorium.

Jim Porter is a retired attorney from Porter Simon licensed in California and Nevada. Porter Simon has offices in Truckee California and Reno, Nevada. These are Jim’s personal opinions. Jim’s practice areas included: real estate, development, construction, business, HOA’s, contracts, personal injury, accidents, mediation and other transactional matters. He may be reached at jameslporterjr@gmail.com. Like us on Facebook. ©2025