The Senate Budget Committee voted 8-4 in favor of abolishing the death penalty Monday.

Lawmakers took up the issue of penalty after a six-month commission investigation concluded the penalty was not worth it. The commission also found the system was too broken to fix.

A move to abolish the death penalty has been a long and often emotional process for families of murder victims. Some of those family members are on both sides of the issue.

Kathleen Garcia?s nephew was murdered in 1984. Garcia, who was on the commission that investigated the death penalty, says she is for the death penalty, in theory, but says she can?t support it in real life.

Other family members of murder victims feel the death penalty will always have a place in the justice system.

An Assembly committee will take up the issue next week. The full Assembly plans to vote on the matter Dec. 13.

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