Death penalty in California

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of California.

It carried out 709 executions from 1778 to the 1972 California Supreme Court decision in People v. Anderson that struck down the state capital punishment statute.

California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and superseding the Anderson ruling. Since then, hundreds of death sentences have been handed down, but only 13 executions have been carried out, the last one in 2006.

As of 2015, there were 746 offenders on California's death row. Of those, 126 involved torture before murder, 173 killed children, and 44 murdered police officers.

California rejected two initiatives to repeal the death penalty by popular vote in 2012 and 2016, and it adopted in 2016 another proposal to expedite its appeal process.

The first known death sentence in California was recorded in 1778. On April 6, 1778 four Kumeyaay chiefs from a Mission San Diego area ranchería were convicted of conspiring to kill Christians and were sentenced to death by José Francisco Ortega, Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego; the four were to be shot on April 11. However, there is some doubt as to whether or not the executions actually took place.

Four methods have been used historically for executions. Until slightly before California was admitted into the Union, executions were carried out by firing squad. Upon admission, the state adopted hanging as the method of choice.

The penal code was modified on February 14, 1872, to state that hangings were to take place inside the confines of the county jail or other private places. The only people allowed to be present were the county sheriff, a physician, and the county District Attorney, who would in addition select at least 12 "reputable citizens". No more than two "ministers of the gospel" and no more than five people selected by the condemned could also be present.

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