I remember my reaction when California reinstated the death penalty in 1978. I was only eight years old, but I remember that I was of two minds about it. First, I thought the decision was deplorable. Second, it made me understand why Charlie Manson had not been executed and I thought to myself that he was quite the lucky man. In all the years since, while California has sentenced 900 people to die, it has actually only managed to execute thirteen people.
It is mainly the inefficiency of California’s death machine that has caused a Bush-appointed judge to rule their death penalty unconstitutional. He found that the system was ultimately arbitrary because the people who were executed were basically random, and the decades-long uncertainty for the rest he deemed to be cruel and unusual punishment.
I have no problem with the ruling but I don’t expect it to hold up on appeal.
