In CA, people can be sentenced to death or life without parole aka “death by incarceration” because of a mandatory special circumstance law from the 1970’s. This mandatory LWOP sentence does not allow a judge to justly review a person's ability to rehabilitate. A prosecuting attorney decides whether to charge an individual with a special circumstance. Before 1990, judges had the ability to exercise their discretion to determine if a special circumstance enhancement was appropriate or necessary to the case.