Professor Hing Co-authors Death Penalty Op-ed for SF Chronicle

Professor Bill Ong Hing co-authored an op-ed on the death penalty that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 25.  The opinion piece was written with two fellow members of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice: Jon Streeter, a partner at the firm of Keker & Van Nest, and Diane Bellas, the public defender of Alameda County.  The piece references the commission's report on the death penalty in calling for California to replace the death penalty with sentences of permanent imprisonment.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice report cites numerous problems with capital punishment in California, including long delays caused by the lack of attorneys willing to represent death penalty defendants in mandatory reviews, the California Supreme Court's lack of resources and consequent backlog of cases, and the "poor quality of legal work" that has led to reversals in two out of three of California death penalty cases reviewed by federal courts.  Noting the $137 million annual cost of the "state's dysfunctional death penalty" and the $95 million annual price tag for needed reforms, the op-ed suggests that the only affordable solution is to "replace the death penalty with permanent imprisonment."

Bill Ong Hing is recognized nationally as an immigration law and community lawyering expert. He is the founder of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco.

San Francisco Chronicle op-ed