New Death Penalty Initiative

The Times- Standard reports on a new death penalty initiative being proposed for circulation. This one will speed up the appeals process for death penalty cases. I doubt I'll be signing it.

I'm generally opposed to the death penalty, but you won't find me out in front of San Quentin protesting planned executions. I think some death penalty cases are richly deserved. I'm just not sure I trust our government and justice system to apply it properly, never mind the idea of an innocent man being convicted.

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I've wrote before here I wonder whether confessing to the crime in question beforehand should be considered as grounds for dropping the death penalty? Take Richard Allen Davis- The guy who confessed to killing Polly Klass. He admitted to it earlier on and probably saved us all kinds of money and process by doing so. Why not just give him life since he fessed up to it?

Then there's Gary Lee Bullock, the guy accused of killing Rev. Eric Freed. They're considering the death penalty for him. The guy's goose is cooked as the evidence seems overwhelming that he did it, or was at least involved. Yet he's pleading Not Guilty at this point in time. If he fesses up and saves us a lot of trouble, I'm not averse to dropping the death penalty in his case, either.