How the death penalty is carried out and what conditions in prison might be for a person serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Thompson, 246 Cal.Rptr. 245, 45 Cal.3d 86, 753 P.2d 37 (Cal. 1988):

Evidence of how the death penalty is carried out or what conditions in prison might be for a person serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole was not, as defense counsel candidly admitted, offered as "mitigating" evidence. It went neither to defendant and his background nor to the nature and circumstances of his crime. We have held that evidence as to how the death penalty is carried out should not be admitted. (People v. Harris (1981) 28 Cal.3d 935, 962, 171 Cal.Rptr. 679, 623 P.2d 240.) Describing future conditions of confinement for a person serving life without possibility of parole involves speculation as to what future officials in another branch of government will or will not do. (Cf. Ramos,

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