ABSTRACT
California is home to the largest death row population in the nation. This chapter provides a broad overview of California's death penalty. It highlights how the death penalty in California continues in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion due to issues in prosecutorial discretion and juror decision making. The chapter describes how the current de-facto abolition came into being through legislative review, legal challenges, shifts in public opinion, and myriad voter-initiated propositions and constitutional amendment efforts. According to California state law, the decision to seek the death penalty comes with three provisions that are not mandated in other criminal cases. First, both aggravating and mitigating evidence must be allowed into evidence. Second, death penalty cases must be bifurcated, or separated into two separate trials, a guilt phase and a sentencing phase. Finally, all death penalty cases must receive an automatic appeal to the State Supreme Court, where the court determines if any legal errors were made.
