|  Statistics  |

Whether or not a person is charged with felony murder depends, disproportionately, on the county in which the crime took place and the discretion of each district attorney who serves that county. A first degree felony murder conviction mandates only two sentences: the death penalty - or - life without the possibility of parole (otherwise known as death by incarceration). 

The inexorable fact that a person can, and most likely will, be charged with first degree murder under the felony murder rule, even though that person neither killed nor had the intent to kill another, should be at the forefront of our thinking. In reality, California has sentenced to death thousands of young women and men who did not commit murder.

The number of California community members  sentenced to death by incarceration (life without the possibility of parole) staggers the mind. The despicable waste of life caused by this sentence shocks the senses. California desperately needs the creativity and intelligence of its young people to keep it a thriving and forward-thinking part of the American fabric. Instead, we have locked it behind walls and left it to die. 

We shovel money by the truckload - $112,691/person/year if young and healthy, $200,000+/person/year if older – to ensure a slow and excruciating existence until death. Thousands serving this death penalty were family and community members who had never been in trouble with the law. This question demands an answer: “In what ways would this inconceivable amount of money be more wisely spent?” Better education? Housing and investment in our most impoverished communities? Medical and mental health care for our most vulnerable community members?