by J T Stepleton | 2019-05-08 Print Button

Extrajudicial executions in the United States have declined considerably in the past twenty years, but the 2016 elections were described as a “comeback for the death penalty.” Nebraska voters reinstituted capital punishment. Oklahomans fortified the state’s right to put inmates to death. Dueling measures appeared on the ballot in California: voters rejected Proposition 62, which would have abolished the death penalty, and passed Proposition 66, which reaffirmed capital punishment and sought to expedite death sentences.

But Californians also elected Gavin Newsom as their governor in 2018. Just two months into his term, Newsom suspended the ultimate punishment for as long as he is the state’s top executive. This could be a precursor to yet another effort to overturn the death penalty in 2020.

The National Institute on Money in Politics examined the money that fueled California’s death penalty campaigns in 2016 and discovered that many of those responsible for managing the prisons gave proponents of the death penalty a critical financial advantage. Meanwhile, a small group of prolific donors led the abolition push.

Fundraising Totals

A cursory examination of fundraising in the Propositions 62 and 66 campaigns can be misleading. Death-penalty opponents raised $18.1 million, 25 percent more than death-penalty proponents raised. However, four committees were involved in other 2016 ballot measure campaigns, including two well-funded death-penalty opposition committees that also supported other measures:

Figure 1: Contributions to Proposition 62/66-Specific Committees in California, 2016!/vizhome/DeathPenaltyCmtes/Dashboard1

Examining the money raised by those committees that worked exclusively on campaigns related to capital punishment,1 the Institute finds death-penalty proponents in California outraised death-penalty opponents $13.5 million to $9.7 million in 2016.

Proposition 62/66-Specific Committees

Death penalty supporters had corrections officers and their unions to thank for the fundraising edge. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), a state corrections officers labor union, registered as a pro-death-penalty ballot measure committee and reported contributions from roughly 28,000 corrections officers. Each transaction amounted to just $287 reported on December 16, 2015. Interestingly, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found the State of California employed 37,050 correctional officers in May, 2016.

Corrections officers represented the overwhelming majority of small donors rallying behind the death penalty. The ballot measure committees reported slightly more than $65,000 in small contributions under the reporting threshold (commonly referred to as “unitemized donations”), as well as 86 donors who gave less than the $287 amount given by corrections officers. The officers’ donations helped pull the average pro-death-penalty contribution to just $470.

Thirty-five public sector unions collectively gave $3.3 million to the pro-death-penalty effort, nearly a quarter of the total raised by committees on that side of the campaign. Almost half ($1.6 million) of the union total came from just two donors: the CCPOA and the Peace Officers Research Association of California.

Figure 2: Contributions to Death Penalty Ballot Measure Committees Devoted Exclusively to Propositions 62 and/or 66 in California, by Industry, 2016!/vizhome/DeathPenaltyMeasuresIndustryBreakdown/Dashboard1

Proposition 62/66-specific committees opposed to capital punishment attracted donors from a diverse set of industries, but a handful of spenders dominated the giving from the most prolific industries. More than four-fifths of the anti-death-penalty total ($7.9 million) came from just 35 donors that gave $50,000 or more, including the following:

Although high-dollar donors played an important role in the campaign to end the death penalty, the committees still enjoyed some fundraising success among small donors. Roughly 1,700 contributors each gave less than $1,000 to Proposition 62/66-specific committees opposed to the death penalty, which totaled over $366,000. Additionally, these committees reported $137,352 in unitemized donations. The average contribution total to the anti-death-penalty side was about $4,750.


In the weeks approaching the election, polls suggested a plurality of California voters supported Proposition 62, and just a third of voters backed Proposition 66. CCPOA, funded almost entirely by corrections officer donations, intervened with an advertising blitz. In the end, 53 percent of voters rejected Proposition 62 and 51 percent okayed Proposition 66.

Opponents of capital punishment may be once again looking to the initiative process to permanently kill California’s death penalty, and recent polls indicate California voters may be on their side. But prosecutors are still seeking death sentences, and the 2016 election demonstrated opinion polls don’t always predict electoral outcomes. California’s battle will undoubtedly be a reference point for future efforts to kill the death penalty.