Life in California

No one has been executed in the U.S. for 41 years, a sort of moral moratorium during which the courts and legislatures have struggled with the dilemma of capital punishment. At a time of so much violence in the nation and world, some men, at least, pause to consider whether society can justify taking lives under the law. If so. for what purpose? Vengeance? To deter further crime? Some time during its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the death penalty is constitutional (TIME Essay, Jan. 24). Last week the California Supreme Court arrived at its own conclusion, which will stand no matter how the Burger court decides.

In a 6-1 decision, the court declared that capital punishment violates a section of the California constitution that prohibits "cruel or unusual punishment." Thus 107 men and women awaiting death in the state's prisons, including Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson and four members of his gang, will be spared. "Society," said the court, "can be protected from convicted criminals by far less onerous means than execution." Death, the justices added, "is, literally, an unusual punishment among civilized nations." And since the death penalty nowadays is neither swift nor certain anyway, it may not act as much of a deterrent. But Governor Ronald Reagan bitterly called the decision "an almost lethal blow to society's right to protect law-abiding citizens."

In years past, the California court has been a leader in establishing precedents for other state judiciaries. It remains to be seen, in a climate of growing anxiety over crime, whether more states will shut down their gas chambers or dismantle their electric chairs. Fifteen states have abolished the death penalty for almost all offenses. But in one of them. West Virginia, the state senate voted two weeks ago to reinstate it.

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