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Rob Briggs is on a mission to convince everyone that he was wrong. Briggs takes responsibility for crafting California’s death penalty system as we know it, and now he says Californians should vote to end capital punishment in the state. Thirty years ago Briggs, along with his father, then a California state Senator, spearheaded a successful effort to expand the death penalty. The men thought they would bring justice to crime victims, deter criminals, and save the state money. This year, Briggs is a prominent supporter of the Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement, or SAFE California Act. On March 1st, SAFE California Act supporters submitted just under 800,000 signatures to county officials around the state, nearly 300,000 more than the minimum required to get it on the ballot. If passed by voters, the SAFE California Act will replace the death penalty with life in imprisonment without parole. The death penalty costs the state of California more than $100 million a year, money that SAFE California Act supporters say should go to fighting crime. Even though 725 inmates live on death Row in San Quentin the state has not executed anyone since 2006, when doubts about the constitutionality of the three-drug cocktail used to kill a person by lethal injection resulted in a court ordered stay of executions that has not yet been resolved.

GUEST: Gil Garcetti, lead spokesperson for SAFE California and former Los Angeles District Attorney

Visit www.safecalifornia.org for more information.