Criminal Justice

California Voters Will Decide on Death Penalty

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A measure on the November ballot in California will allow voters to decide whether to continue the death penalty in the state.

The referendum would substitute life in prison without parole for capital sentences, report the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. The measure would apply to those currently on death row and would bar future death sentences.

Though California authorizes death sentences, in reality they are rare, according to the Los Angeles Times. “California has executed 13 inmates in 23 years, and prisoners are far more likely to die of old age on death row than by the executioner’s needle,” the story says.

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