U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana made waves in 2014 when he
ruled that a death row inmate's sentence was unconstitutional because of the arbitrary
way the penalty is administered in California. (
Jones v. Chappell, 31 F. Supp. 3d 1050 (C.D. Cal. 2014).)
State figures show there were 753 inmates on death row as of March 9, including 10
awaiting retrial; since California reinstated capital punishment in 1978, 13 people
have been executed. Typically, about three decades elapse between a sentence of death
and resolution of an inmate's appeals.
The state has argued that Ernest Dewayne Jones, convicted in 1995 of rape and murder,
hasn't properly exhausted his appeals. It also argues, among other points, that claims
about the penalty's general administration don't apply to Jones specifically, and
that he is improperly alleging new facts in his federal habeas corpus case. The state
attorney general appealed Carney's ruling to the Ninth Circuit in December, and Jones
filed a response in March.
More than 20 amicus curiae submitted briefs. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
contends that delays don't negate the penalty's retributive purpose: "[T]o frustrate
or to diminish an interest is not to extinguish the interest. A murderer who lives
out much of his life span before being executed for a crime committed decades earlier
has gotten off easier than he should."
But Jones's supporters, including a retired San Quentin correctional officer, argue
in their briefs that delays increase the death penalty's cost, limit its deterrent
effect, and make it unconstitutionally arbitrary.
Loyola Law School's Alarcon Advocacy Center points out that, when their habeas petition
is actually heard, many inmates successfully make the case that they don't belong
on death row.
Death Penalty Focus maintains that delays can hamper death row inmates' abilities
to pursue their direct appeals and can "irreparably harm the inmates by depriving
them of their freedom and the opportunity to rebuild their lives during the decades
spent reviewing their convictions."
No date for the oral argument had been set by press time.
Donna Mallard
Daily Journal Staff Writer
