"Capital punishment is exclusively for people without capital," is one of the anti side's favorite lines. The well-heeled and the politically connected never receive death sentences, they will tell you. One minor problem: it's not true. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Enrique Zambrano.

The prosecution’s evidence indicated that defendant, a member of the Berkeley Waterfront Commission, bludgeoned the Mishells, a University of California professor and his wife, because he believed they had made anonymous telephone calls exposing his extramarital affair. The evidence further indicated that defendant then fatally shot Reyna, a fellow waterfront commissioner, to prevent Reyna from testifying against him in the Mishell matter.

Defendant admitted attacking the Mishells, but claimed provocation. He asserted that Reyna’s death was an accident. Defendant admitted that, to cover up the homicide, he decapitated, dismembered, and scattered Reyna’s body, then fled to Mexico with his girlfriend.

Henry Lee has this story in the SF Chron. There are other examples, such as the Thomas Capano case in Delaware. They are not common simply because the well-heeled rarely commit capital murder, but they are frequent enough to disprove the exaggerated claims we often hear.