New data in a study to be released next week on California’s death penalty has revealed that the price tag for death is even higher than we thought: $4 billion since 1978. Put another way, we spend $184 million more per year for death penalty inmates than we do on those sentenced to life without the chance of parole. All told, California is on track to spend $1 billion on the death penalty over the next five years. The new estimate is the result of a three-year comprehensive examination of state, federal, and local expenditures on California’s death penalty by Arthur Alarcón, a federal judge on the 9^th Circuit, and Paula Mitchell, a Loyola Law School professor. Mercury News called the study “highly credible” and that it made the case for replacing the death penalty “nearly indisputable.” Not that anyone was disputing the wasteful spending before – except for that guy who comments on all my blogs. By now, most folks get that the death penalty wastes hundreds of millions of our dwindling state dollars. Only now we know that it actually wastes billions. $4 billion and what did that get us? A grand total of 13 executions. That’s over $300 million per execution above the cost of life without parole.
Meanwhile, nearly half of all murders in California go unsolved. How many dangerous individuals could we have locked up permanently and taken off our streets over the last 33 years if we hadn’t executed those 13 people? How many children and families could have accessed the education and health services they needed, or how many students could have had the opportunity to attend college? Looking ahead, the study predicts another $9 billion will be spent by 2030. Unless of course Gov. Brown just cuts the death penalty spending already – and it really is that easy.
The Governor has the authority to convert all 714 of California’s death sentences to life without the possibility of parole, saving California $1 billion over five years without releasing a single prisoner. Grassroots organizations and thousands of individuals around the state have been asking the Governor to do just that since the day he took office, and these new figures are giving the idea more traction with those looking for budget fixes, like CNNMoney.
And here’s the kicker: California voters agree. Polls as recent as April 2011 show that Californians support cutting the death penalty [PDF]. A full 63% of likely voters favor the governor converting all existing death sentences to life without parole, with the requirement that prisoners work and pay restitution into the Victims’ Compensation Fund (death row inmates are not currently required to work). That support spans party and geographic lines – majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all across the state agree. It’s hard not to when there are four billion reasons. The case is closed on the death penalty. There’s no question that California’s death penalty is dysfunctional and that the only thing it’s killing is our economy. The experts know it, the voters know it, and our elected leaders need to acknowledge it. Tell Jerry Brown to give up the charade of the death penalty and to give back the hundreds of millions of dollars law enforcement and education leaders need to actually keep our families safe.

ACLU client fought release of medical records to state agency

(Los Angeles) – A judge has ruled that the compelled release of HIV test records of adult film performers to state investigators would violate state and federal privacy guarantees.

The ACLU and the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP represented an adult film performer, dubbed “Patient Zero”, who tested positive for HIV in 2009.  Patient Zero was tested at Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Health Foundation, which runs a voluntary testing program where performers are tested every 30 days for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.  Following media reports that an adult film performer had tested positive for HIV, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CalOSHA) served a subpoena on AIM seeking test records that would have identified Patient Zero’s name and positive HIV status.

Judge Winifred Smith ruled last week that the clinic’s disclosure of the information would violate California’s laws protecting the confidentiality of HIV test results, as well as state and federal constitutional rights to privacy.  The judge found that Patient Zero had the right to expect that HIV test results would remain private, and that CalOSHA had no right to obtain that information.  The court also ruled that CalOSHA ignored less intrusive solutions to investigating the transmission of HIV in the adult film industry such as industry education or on-site inspections of film shoots.

“You don’t give up your right to medical privacy because of what you do for a living,” said Peter Eliasberg, Legal Director for the ACLU of Southern California.  “Names of those testing positive are already reported to state and local health agencies – the only ones who need to know.  The disclosure of HIV test results to any agency requesting them would be a public health disaster.  HIV isn’t a run-of-the-mill public health concern; thirty years into this epidemic, an enormous amount of stigma and misunderstanding still surround a positive result.  The indiscriminate release of test results would only frighten many from ever getting tested in the first place.”

Patient Zero was represented by Elizabeth Gill of the ACLU of Northern California, Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU of Southern California, and Jennifer Brockett and Aleah Yung of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.  The case is Patient Zero v. California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. 

Southern California has a lot to be proud of in its LGBT community, but the reverse is also true: the LGBT community in Southern California can take pride in the region it calls home. After all, we have a rich history of being at the forefront of LGBT rights.
A quick list: Harry Hay founded the Mattachine Society, the first lasting gay rights organization, here in Los Angeles in the winter of 1950. The first publication devoted to LGBT issues — ONE— also originated right here in 1953.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center was the first LGBT organization in the United States to be granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.
And the first openly gay judge ever appointed to the bench —Stephen Lachs — was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1979.

We’re also lucky to have a number of leaders in the local LGBT community who have been fighting for years to protect our rights and improve the lives of LGBT people here and nationwide. To recognize some of these people, last week KCET and Union Bank continued a long tradition of highlighting some of our wider community's "Local Heroes" by selecting its inaugural class of LGBT honorees.

The ACLU of Southern California is proud that our own deputy executive director, James Gilliam, was one of the five people chosen. James directs our Seth Walsh Students’ Rights Project, which we launched yesterday. The other nominees included David Damian Figueroa, Vice-President of Communications and Development at MALDEF; Alex Fukui, Co-Chair of API Equality-LA; Karina Samala, Chair of the City of Los Angeles Human Services Commission Transgender Working Group; and Marquita Thomas, President of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Profiles of all the nominees are available on KCET’s website.

It’s a powerful list of historic firsts – and of hardworking LGBT Pride Month Local Heroes. That’s something Southern California’s LGBT community can be proud of.