There is no need for a death penalty moratorium in...

There is no need for a death penalty moratorium in California - even though there are more than 600 people on death row - because there are no problems with the sentencing process, according to a report released by a group of prosecutors.
Death penalty critics quickly denounced the report released and branded it a political document based on faulty information.
The authors said the report was drafted in response to growing publicity about problems with the death penalty and a growing movement for a death penalty moratorium in California. Among the groups defending the state's death penalty policy were Attorney General Bill Lockyer, the California District Attorneys Association and the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a pro-law enforcement group.
"California's legal system provides more protections for those charged with capital murders than any other death penalty state," said Michael Rushford, president of the foundation.
At least two counties in California have joined the states of Illinois and Maryland as well as the American Bar Association that enacted or called for a death penalty moratorium.
Polls show that although a majority of Californians favour capital punishment, support for it has eroded in recent years.
The report's authors praised procedural safeguards in capital cases even as they severely criticized the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that has overturned a number of state death sentences in recent years.
"The very institution they are attacking - the 9th Circuit - is the principal insurance against unfair outcomes in capital cases in California," said University of California, Berkeley law professor Frank Zimring, a death penalty critic.
With 616 condemned inmates, California has the largest death row in the nation. But only 10 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.