Since 2010, Los Angeles County has recorded 36 new death sentences, more than any county in the nation, said David Savage of the Los Angeles Times.
“Judges and juries in Los Angeles County imposed a death sentence on four murderers during 2016, including Lonnie Franklin Jr., the so-called ‘Grim Sleeper,’ who was convicted of killing 10 women,” Savage reported.
California has by far the nation’s largest death row, with 747 condemned inmates, but it has not carried out an execution in the past decade.
“Tennessee is 17.1 percent Black, but Blacks make up 69 percent of all drug-free school zone offenders…” REASON Magazine, January 2018
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told Savage the nation is clearly turning away from capital punishment. “Whether it’s concerns about innocence, costs and discrimination, availability of life without parole as a safe alternative, or the questionable way in which states are attempting to carry out executions, the public grows increasingly uncomfortable with the death penalty each year.”
