actually, to take your suggestion to it's logical progression, why bother with appeals at all? just take them out in back of the courthouse and shoot them in the back of the head. quick and cheap (a .45 round only costs about 75 cents), and no pesky DNA tests on the horizon.

a little messy sure, but do it in a dirt lot, and no one will care. actually, aside from the condemned, their family, the victim's family and the execution team, no one really cares anyway.

While there have been no proven cases of innocents being executed, the number of near-misses means that mathematically there
must have been a few cases where innocents were, in fact, executed.

There was one case where evidence that might've exculpated an executed convict wasn't tested, that was in the state of Virginia.

RICHARD (with suppressed impatience, to Brudenell). Look here,
sir: this is no place for a man of your profession. Hadn't you
better go away?

SWINDON. I appeal to you, prisoner, if you have any sense of
decency left, to listen to the ministrations of the chaplain, and
pay due heed to the solemnity of the occasion.

THE CHAPLAIN (gently reproving Richard). Try to control yourself,
and submit to the divine will. (He lifts his book to proceed with
the service.)

RICHARD. Answer for your own will, sir, and those of your accomplices here (indicating Burgoyne and Swindon): I see little divinity about them or you. You talk to me of Christianity when
you are in the act of hanging your enemies. Was there ever such blasphemous nonsense! (To Swindon, more rudely) You've got up
the solemnity of the occasion, as you call it, to impress the people with your own dignity--Handel's music and a clergyman to make murder look like piety! Do you suppose I am going to help you?

You've asked me to choose the rope because you don't know your own trade well enough to shoot me properly. Well, hang away and have done with it.

SWINDON (to the chaplain). Can you do nothing with him, Mr.Brudenell?

CHAPLAIN. I will try, sir. (Beginning to read) Man that is born of woman hath--

RICHARD (fixing his eyes on him). "Thou shalt not kill."

The book drops in Brudenell's hands.

CHAPLAIN (confessing his embarrassment). What am I to say, Mr.Dudgeon?

RICHARD. Let me alone, man, can't you?

BURGOYNE (with extreme urbanity). I think, Mr. Brudenell, that as the usual professional observations seem to strike Mr. Dudgeon as
incongruous under the circumstances, you had better omit then until--er--until Mr. Dudgeon can no longer be inconvenienced by them. (Brudenell, with a shrug, shuts his book and retires behind
the gallows.) YOU seem in a hurry, Mr. Dudgeon.

RICHARD (with the horror of death upon him). Do you think this is a pleasant sort of thing to be kept waiting for? You've made up your mind to commit murder: well, do it and have done with it.

BURGOYNE. Mr. Dudgeon: we are only doing this--

RICHARD. Because you're paid to do it.

SWINDON. You insolent-- (He swallows his rage.)

BURGOYNE (with much charm of manner). Ah, I am really sorry that you should think that, Mr. Dudgeon. If you knew what my commission cost me, and what my pay is, you would think better of
me. I should be glad to part from you on friendly terms.

For a refutation of the crappy deterrence studies check out this page at the Death Penalty Information Center.  While reading, ponder why states without the death penalty consistently have lower murder rates than those with it.

This claim demonstrates a profound ignorance of what is going on in California and the capital appeals process:

5) There is no reason for death penalty appeals to take longer than 7 years. All death penalty appeals, direct and writ, should travel through the process concurrently, thereby giving every appellate issue 7 years of consideration through both state and federal courts. There is no need for endless repetition and delay. This would result in a reduction in both adjudication and incarceration costs.

First, there are currently about 79 inmates (Out of about 670 total) on California's death row with no lawyer for their direct appeal and 291 with no habeas lawyer because the state has not provided sufficient funding for the state agencies that handle these cases and there are not enough private attorneys willing to take the cases.  The wait just to get a lawyer in California is thus 3 - 5 years for direct appeal and 8-10 for habeas.

The above figures are from the report of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice which estimated it would cost an additional $95 million a year to fix the problems with California's death penalty system.

It might be possible to speed up the process by setting deadlines that would prevent thorough investigation and lower the standards for defense lawyers.  Of course such a speeding up the process will also greatly increase the chance of a wrongful execution and will increase the incentive for the prosecution and law enforcement to do the kind of stonewalling and suppression of evidence that has often been at the root of exonerations.  But who cares really.