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Might California have an ideal(?) dysfunctional(?) capital punishment scheme?

By Douglas A. Berman

The many question marks in the title of this post is prompted by recent news of record low murder rates in Los Angeles (discussed here), together with this new piece in the Los Angeles Times headlined "California sentences more prisoners to die while executing none."  Here are excerpts from this news report: California continued to buck a nationwide trend away from costly and litigious death sentences in 2010, adding 28 new prisoners to the country's most populous death row, according to correction officials and a national database on capital punishment. Los Angeles County alone condemned eight defendants to death this year, the same number as Texas, and Riverside County sent six men to await execution, officials said. The state's death chamber was idle for a fifth year, though, because of protracted legal challenges of lethal injection practices and a nationwide shortage of the key drug used in the three-injection procedure...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 29, 2010 (boomark / email).