Alameda County Coalition Seeks Alternatives to the Death Penalty

A new coalition in Alameda County is working hard to expose how the death penalty impacts the community locally, and to promote effective alternatives.

The Alameda County Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (ACCADP) is bringing attention to the fact that Alameda County is among the most aggressive death sentencing counties in the state, and that each death penalty trial costs the county at least $1.1 million more than a trial ending in a sentence of permanent imprisonment. Meanwhile, the county is suffering from a serious fiscal crisis. Seeking death sentences also has not made Alameda County residents safer: Fewer than 30 percent  of homicides were solved in 2005, and crime rates throughout the county continue to soar.

ACCADP believes that the valuable public dollars spent seeking execution in the county would be better spent on solving crimes and investing in effective crime prevention programs.

• Alameda County has wasted more than $14.3 million seeking executions since 2000;
• The amount of money Alameda County spent sentencing 13 people to execution since 2000 could have funded the salaries of 31 teachers or 29 homicide investigators;
• Alameda County sends nine times as many people to death row per murder charged than Fresno County;
• A resident of Alameda County is eight times more likely to be sentenced to death than a Santa Clara County resident (despite similar population demographics);
• Alameda County’s homicide rate is higher than the statewide average;
Only 10 counties (including Alameda) account for 85 percent of the state’s death sentences; and
• Each death penalty trial costs the county $1.1 million more than permanent imprisonment.

Supporters

Officially launched in February 2008, ACCADP is supported by Death Penalty Focus, ACLU of Northern California, Amnesty International, League of Women Voters, Progressive Jewish Alliance, California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty, Bay Area Association of the United Church of Christ, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and other organizations and community members. The ranks continue to grow, and many more groups have passed resolutions calling on the Alameda County district attorney to stop seeking death sentences.

Inaugural Training

The coalition’s inaugural event was a widely attended training held on June 7, 2008 in Oakland. ACCADP members held workshops, and shared new information about what county residents sacrifice by continuing to seek death sentences, and how the county would be better served by sentencing the worst offenders to permanent imprisonment. Coalition members and county activists are also working to establish transparency and accountability for local elected officials, who make important decisions related to the county’s death penalty policy every day.

ACCADP meets the first Thursday of every month in downtown Oakland. 

Visit www.AlamedaDeathPenalty.org for more information.

Take Action!

Download the Petition to End Death Sentences in Alameda County

Sign the Online Petition to End Death Sentences in Alameda County

Download a Resolution for Your Community Group to Pass

Download I nstructions for Passing Resolutions.

Learn More

Alameda County Fact Sheet 

"Death By Geography: A County by County Analysis of the Road to Execution"

"The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Costs of Seeking Execution in California"

Racial and Geographic Disparities in California’s Death Penalty" (.pdf)