Governor Brown calls it "unconscionable" to earmark hundreds of millions of dollars for a death row project given the state's budget realities. His Press Secretary Gil Duran:
"At this time, when we're cutting schools and we're cutting services for the disabled and the poor and seniors we cannot move forward with a plan to spend 356 million dollars on a brand new death row at San Quentin."
Duran says the project would have added nearly 29 million dollars a year in debt payments for California. He says the state will look for alternatives, including better use of existing room at San Quentin. Planning for the new facility began in 2003. It would have housed more than 11-hundred inmates. Duran says there are currently fewer than 700 on death row.