For more than 40 years, the Catholic bishops of the United States have called for an end to the use of the inhumane death penalty. California has the country’s largest death row population, with over 650 people awaiting execution - even as a majority of Americans support life without parole over the death penalty.
SB 1001 will clarify that a person with an intellectual disability who was not diagnosed as a minor is ineligible for the death penalty.
Regardless of one’s view of the death penalty, however, a person who has an intellectual disability (ID) should not remain on death row. The Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that executing a person with ID was unconstitutional and constituted cruel and unusual punishment due to the person’s diminished culpability for their actions.
Continuing to keep a person with an ID on death row provides no rehabilitation, punishment, or restoration to the offender, the victim, or society.
Please ask Governor Newsom to sign SB 1001.
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