USA - California. Death Penalty Bill Dies Before Even Coming To A Vote

California Death Penalty Bill Dies Before Even Coming To A Vote. SB 490 that would have allowed voters to abolish the death penalty was withdrawn by state Sen. Loni Hancock. The bill would have put the option of getting rid of California's death penalty on the November 2012 ballot. Crimes previously meriting the death penalty would have then been punished by life without parole. In the face of political realities in the state legislature, Hancock has withdrawn the bill. The Bellingham Herald reports:  "The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement. "I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and fund essential public institutions like the courts," she said. Hancock was unable to secure the 9 votes needed to move her bill out of the out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and onto the floor of the senate for a full vote. Hancock was pushing the legislation based on a widely circulated study that said the state has spent $4 billion on capital punishment since voters decided to reinstate it in 1978. In that time, only 13 death row inmates have been executed, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data. There are currently 714 inmates sentenced to die in California.