<P> Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of California . </P> <P> It carried out 709 executions from 1778 to the 1972 California Supreme Court decision in People v. Anderson that struck down the state capital punishment statute . </P> <P> California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and superseding the Anderson ruling . Since then, hundreds of death sentences have been handed down, but only 13 executions have been carried out, the last one in 2006 . </P> <P> As of 2015, there were 746 offenders on California's death row . Of those, 126 involved torture before murder, 173 killed children, and 44 murdered police officers . </P>

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