Federal judge: California's death penalty is unconstitutional
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that California's death penalty was unconstitutional because "arbitrary" factors determined whether or not convicts would be put to death.
"Inordinate and unpredictable delays" have "resulted in a system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed," Judge Cormac Carney wrote in his opinion.
California hasn't executed a prisoner since 2006, but the state still has almost 750 convicts on death row.
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