My first post to this thread (my second overall!). I have a lot of observations to make but sometimes that darn thing called life gets in my way. I am planning some R&R later this week and will try to put a cohesive post together.
Something that concerns me about the death penalty versus LWOP (at least here in CA) is that LWOP clearly doesn't mean life. Charles Manson et. al were given the death penalty, which was subsequently overturned and they were instead given LWOP. Every couple of years the Manson family members who were given LWOP come up for parole and go through hearings. While I don't think any of them have been paroled (including a parole request from one of the women who was terminally ill, and has since passed away), the possibility clearly exists. This also includes Charley himself, who has refused to got before the board on several occasions. So, again, the possibility of parole is there. This is really the main reason I prefer the DP option. I don't really care if they are executed or just eventually die in prison. I just want a guarantee they will stay in prison, and obviously LWOP cannot guarantee that. I agree with the comments that in CA it takes nothing short of divine intervention for execution to be carried out. In the few cases where execution has been carried out since I have lived in CA (40+) it has taken about 20 years to get there through the appeals process. I think the last execution that was carried out was a case of a man who killed 2 teenagers who were sitting in a canyon in the middle of the day eating some fast food and he just shot them without anything leading up to the decision he made to murder two "children." One of the boys was the son of a detective from the San Diego PD and they case was very clear cut, but it still took about 20 years for hat to happen. So, after all my rambling, I just want to be sure the