Al Jazeera
Question to appear on November ballot after more than 500,000 people signed up to back the proposal.
Voters in California will have the chance to cast ballots on a referendum on ending the death penalty in November.
The "Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act," or SAFE California Act, garnered enough support signatures, and will be considered on November 6, when Americans head to the polls for general elections, Debra Bowen California's Secretary of State said on Monday.
Supporters collected more than the 504,760 valid signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot.
If the measure is approved, the 725 California inmates now on Death Row will have their sentences converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It would also make life without parole the harshest penalty prosecutors can seek.
Backers of the measure said abolishing the death penalty would save the state millions of dollars through layoffs of prosecutors and defence lawyers who handle death penalty cases, as well as savings from not having to maintain the nation's largest death row at San Quentin Prison.
If the measure passes, $100m in purported savings from abolishing the death penalty would be used over three years to investigate unsolved murders and rapes.
"Our system is broken, expensive and it always will carry the grave risk of a mistake," said Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin prison, who is now an anti-death penalty advocate and an official supporter of the measure.
Question to appear on November ballot after more than 500,000 people signed up to back the proposal.
Voters in California will have the chance to cast ballots on a referendum on ending the death penalty in November.
The "Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act," or SAFE California Act, garnered enough support signatures, and will be considered on November 6, when Americans head to the polls for general elections, Debra Bowen California's Secretary of State said on Monday.
Supporters collected more than the 504,760 valid signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot.
If the measure is approved, the 725 California inmates now on Death Row will have their sentences converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It would also make life without parole the harshest penalty prosecutors can seek.
Backers of the measure said abolishing the death penalty would save the state millions of dollars through layoffs of prosecutors and defence lawyers who handle death penalty cases, as well as savings from not having to maintain the nation's largest death row at San Quentin Prison.
If the measure passes, $100m in purported savings from abolishing the death penalty would be used over three years to investigate unsolved murders and rapes.
"Our system is broken, expensive and it always will carry the grave risk of a mistake," said Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin prison, who is now an anti-death penalty advocate and an official supporter of the measure.
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