Death Penalty Focus Hires Former Warden Who Helped Execute People as Its Executive Director

On many nights when the State of California would put someone to death, faithful rank and file opponents would make the drive to San Quentin State Prison and make the half mile walk to the gate where they waited in the cold off the San Francisco Bay – a testament to their opposition to the death penalty. Inside those gates a professional correction officer, highly paid, educated – a “career” professional earned a good income overseeing the carrying out of the executions. Did she get a good performance review for the way she carried out the executions – with dignity, no doubt? Now that career professional heads up Death Penalty Focus, a California non-profit supposedly against the death penalty, as its Executive Director.

Jeanne Woodford is the Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the death penalty and its alternatives. Ms. Woodford previously served as the Undersecretary and Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Warden of San Quentin State Prison, where she oversaw four executions.

I wonder if she is giving up her generous pension with the State and donating her services to DPF or is she doing the “double-dipping” dance so common among our public “servants?” What about those dedicated people who instead of taking high paying careers served in non-profits? Wouldn’t they make a better Executive Director than someone whose career included killing people? And what kind of pension plan does Death Penalty Focus give to its employees?

Am I wrong, or is this just another example of how absurd our society is in America – the corporations, the government, the non-profits – all the “career” professionals? Would a person of true moral character work within a system that killed people and actually participate in carrying out these killings? Well, in America you apparently become the head of an anti-death penalty group.

Something seems very, very wrong to me.