In the first ruling of its kind in the United States, a federal judge in Orange County on Wednesday declared the death penalty "unconstitutional" in the state of California.
Of the 900 people sentenced to death for their crimes since 1978, when the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters, only 13 have been executed so far.
Los Angeles County has the most inmates on death row in the country at 228, followed by Harris County, TX (101), and Philadelphia County (88), according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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Below is a list of death row inmates from Southern California:
1980: Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown was convicted in 1982 for sex killing of 15-year-old Susan Louise Jordan.Brown dragged the teen into an orange grove, where he stripped her of her clothing, sexually assaulted her and strangled her with one of her own shoelaces, according to the District Attorney's Office. His execution was blocked in 2010 by a federal judge. Read More
1986: Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game" Killer
Rodney Alacala appeared as Contestant No. 1 on an episode of the "The Dating Game" in 1978 while in the middle of his killing spree that claimed the lives of several SoCal and New York women. Read More
1986: Tiequon Cox, LA Crip member
South LA gangmember Tiequon Cox was sentenced to death row for killing the 59-year-old mother, 24-year-old sister, and young nephews of ex-NFL player Kermit Alexander back in 1984.
1989: Richard Ramirez, The "Night Stalker"
Ramirez was sent to death row at the prison north of San Francisco after he was convicted of 13 murders in 1989. The slayings and sexual assaults terrorized Southern California in 1984 and 1985 with reports of Satanic symbols at bloody crime scenes and a killer who entered through unlocked windows and doors -- a method that led to his original nickname, the "Walk-In Killer." Read More
2005: Oswaldo Amezcua and Joseph Conrad Flores
Oswaldo Amezcua and Joseph Conrad Flores were given the death penalty in April 2005 for a 2000 crime spree that saw the killing of four people in a shootout on the Santa Monica Pier. Read More
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2007: Chester Dwayne Turner
Chester Dwayne Turner was one of at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s and was convicted of killed 10 women and an unborn child in 2007. Read More
2009: Timothy McGhee
Timothy McGhee, once listed among the United States Marshals Service’s Top 15 Most Wanted Fugitives, was sentenced to death in LA County in January 2009 after being convicted of first-degree murder for the slayings of three people between 1997 and 2001. He also was sentenced for the attempted murder of four other people, including two LA police officers. Read More
2012: Emilio Avalos
Gangmember Emilio Avalos was given the death penalty in 2012 for the 1994 killing of Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the shooting of teenager Jahi Collins in Palm Springs. Read More