California gives lifeline to death penalty, approves reform

[webfact]

California gives lifeline to death penalty, approves reform 
BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After condemning the most vicious murderers to death for nearly 40 years, but rarely seeing them meet that fate, California voters said enough.

 

Two weeks after rejecting an effort to toss out the death penalty, a dueling measure designed to speed up appeals so killers are actually executed won a narrow victory Tuesday with 51 percent of support.

 

In passing Proposition 66, California joined two conservative states in support of capital punishment on Election Day, bucking a pattern of states that have abolished the death penalty in recent years.

 

"Voters want to ensure that victims' families receive the justice they want and deserve," Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said in a statement. "The reforms outlined in Prop. 66 are smart fixes that will eradicate waste, delays and inefficiencies while protecting due process for all those who are given the ultimate sentence of death."

 

The ballot initiative was proposed to "mend not end" capital punishment after 52 percent of voters rejected a similar repeal measure in 2012. The repeal effort this year was rejected by 54 percent of voters.

 

Backers on both sides of the contentious issue agreed the current system was broken. More than 900 convicted killers have been sent to death row since the death penalty was reinstated, but only 13 have been executed in the state since 1978. The last execution by lethal injection was more than a decade ago and 750 killers languish on death row.

 

The two death penalty measures drove massive spending on both sides.

 

Law enforcement groups were the biggest supporters of Proposition 66, pouring $12.6 million into the campaign and outspending the rich donors who fueled an $11.5 million effort to fight it. The same backers kicked in about $10 million each to fight or support Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty.

 

As Californians gave the death penalty another chance, voters in Nebraska reinstated the punishment a year after lawmakers abolished it. Oklahomans voted to make it tougher to repeal the death penalty in the future.

 

Those votes run counter to a nationwide move away from capital punishment. A Pew Research Center poll in September showed support for the death penalty at its lowest level in 40 years.

 

Seven states — not counting Nebraska — have done away with the death penalty legislatively or judicially since 2000. Death sentences and executions have mostly been in decline over that same period.

 

Proposition 66 would change how appeals are handled, appointing more lawyers to take cases, putting certain types of appeals before trial court judges and setting a five-year deadline for appeals to be heard. Currently, it can take longer than that for an attorney to be assigned to a case and upward of 25 years to exhaust appeals.

 

Opponents had said the system was fatally flawed and argued that eliminating it would save $150 million a year largely by reducing lengthy appeals.

 

They claimed the reforms would be no panacea and instead wreak havoc on courts, lead to incompetent lawyers being appointed for appeals and could result in wrongful convictions.

 

"We would like nothing better than a criminal justice system that is responsive and fair," said Ana Zamora, manager of the No on Prop. 66 campaign. "But California just made a mistake the size of Texas. We cannot say with any certainty that California will not execute an innocent person."

 

Some death penalty foes have already asked the California Supreme Court to block Proposition 66 from taking effect. Supporters of the measure criticized that as a frivolous move and another stall tactic in delaying executions that could otherwise resume next year.

 

Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who opposes capital punishment, said the court filing was "just a preview of coming attractions" as death penalty opponents try to keep the system at a standstill.

 

"The irony is that Prop. 66 was supposed to simplify and speed things up," Zimring said. "The smart money would bet that it has made things more complex, increased the set of issues to be litigated and if anything could slow down the path to execution in California from its glacial pace previously, it is this."

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-11-23

 

[coma]

They should all be done and dusted within ten years IMO. I am all for the death penalty but I am against double dipping. Spending 20 or 30 years in jail to then be executed isn't fair on anyone. Convict or the families of victims.

[hugh2121]

I'm not in favour of capital punishment as I don't believe anybody has the right to take a life. However, being kept on death row for many years then killed is totally inhumane.

Edited November 24, 2016 by hugh2121

[jesimps]

28 minutes ago, hugh2121 said:

I'm not in favour of capital punishment as I don't believe anybody has the right to take a life. However, being kept on death row for many years then killed is totally inhumane.

If the killers are prepared to take a life then so too should the justice system be.

Maybe the close family of the victim should also have a say.

 

[hugh2121]

2 hours ago, jesimps said:

If the killers are prepared to take a life then so too should the justice system be.

Maybe the close family of the victim should also have a say.

 

 

That's your opinion. I posted mine.

Maybe the police should just have carte blanche to kill whoever they feel like.   Ooops.

[RuamRudy]

3 hours ago, jesimps said:

Maybe the close family of the victim should also have a say.

 

Victim impact statements should definitely be part of any convicted felon's sentencing, however the law should be objective at all times and victims and their families cannot be that - you hurt my dog, let alone my kid, and I would want to see you suffer badly.

[Stargeezr]

I am for the Death Penalty, I am not for the years  and  years

of these murderers getting to stay alive.  China  has  a quick

death sentence, but  I liked France's method better, the chop,

chop, machine. Good bye head.

Geezer

[Mosha]

I am for the Death Penalty, I am not for the years  and  years
of these murderers getting to stay alive.  China  has  a quick
death sentence, but  I liked France's method better, the chop,
chop, machine. Good bye head.
Geezer

Blame the lawyers and the endless appeals.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

[hawker9000]

21 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

 

Victim impact statements should definitely be part of any convicted felon's sentencing, however the law should be objective at all times and victims and their families cannot be that - you hurt my dog, let alone my kid, and I would want to see you suffer badly.

Nope.  Victims or their survivors having a say in the sentencing process is an idea with a certain logical appeal, but it subverts the idea of equal treatment under the law.  The elements necessary to convict a person of capital murder don't vary from one case to another; neither should the sentence. 

 

'Was a little surprised that a "progressive" electorate like California's retained the DP let alone actually passing the streamlined DP proposition despite going so predictably for Hillary.  This won't be the last attempt to abolish the DP in CA though...

   

[SaintLouisBlues]

Just now, hawker9000 said:

Nope.  Victims or their survivors having a say in the sentencing process is an idea with a certain logical appeal, but it subverts the idea of equal treatment under the law.  The elements necessary to convict a person of capital murder don't vary from one case to another; neither should the sentence. 

Having read a number of victim impact statements, overall their tone is "Lock him up forever, he doesn't deserve ever to be released for what he's done to me/my family". It adds nothing to process except it gives the victim a voice, which more often than not ends in disappointment when the judicial process hands down an wholly appropriate sentence (except in the eyes of the victims)