IN LOVING MEMORY OF OFFICER LARRY ELWOOD LASATER, JR. (END OF WATCH: APRIL 24, 2005)

On this date, April 24, 2005, Officer Larry Elwood Lasater, Jr. was killed in the line of duty. Please go to our other blog to learn more about him. I dedicate this article to him. Thank you for praying last year to defeat Proposition 34 in California.

Officer Larry Elwood Lasater, Jr.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/26/v-wireless/4443165/justice-for-crime-victims-demands.html

Another View: Justice for crime victims demands death penalty

By Jan Scully and Phyllis Loya - Special to The Bee

Last Updated 8:39 am PDT Thursday, April 26, 2012

Jan Scully, Sacramento County district attorney, and Phyllis Loya, the mother of a murdered Pittsburg police officer, are responding to Tuesday's Viewpoints article "Death penalty in California does not make us any safer." The article stated that the ballot initiative SAFE California "will provide public protection by keeping those truly guilty of death penalty crimes locked up for life."

The American Civil Liberties Union has waged a relentless attack on public safety in California for decades. Their goal: overturn the death penalty. Their approach has been shameful and costly, in dollars and pain for victims. 

We are writing as the Sacramento County district attorney and the mother of a Pittsburg police officer whose son Larry Lasater was killed by a vicious murderer. We want California to know who's behind the effort to abolish California's death penalty.

It's the ACLU. They are responsible for endless delays, frivolous appeals and a mountain of misinformation. Now, they claim capital punishment is broken and should be repealed.

This November, Californians will vote and hopefully reject the ACLU. The reason is that Californians don't want the most violent criminals to escape justice: 135 sexual assault murderers, 126 torture murderers, 135 child murderers and 41 cop-killers. 

Lawrence Bittaker raped, tortured and killed five teenage girls. Richard "the Nightstalker" Ramirez murdered 13 innocent citizens in Los Angeles, sexually assaulting, torturing and mutilating many of his victims. Richard Allen Davis kidnapped, raped and strangled 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Serial killer Robert Rhoades kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered 8-year-old Michael Lyons as he walked home from school. These are the criminals who earned a death sentence due to the most violent of crimes, with adjudicated special circumstances. They are the ones the ACLU wants you to save.

Sadly, death penalty opponents mask their intentions in a purported concern for the state budget. 

Don't be fooled. 

The ACLU is responsible for the cost of capital punishment, and they're wrong on their promises of savings. Even with life without parole, taxpayers must still pay for appeals, a lifetime of confinement and skyrocketing health care costs to make sure criminals stay healthy in prison. A Rand Corp. study found there is no objective data to give a true estimate of the costs of the death penalty.

The suggestion that commuting death sentences keeps criminals in jail is false. Former Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown commuted sentences of several death row inmates, including Norman Whitehorn and Eddie Wein, both of whom were later paroled, only to kill again.

That's not justice, it's criminal.

Voters know better. They support the death penalty and will not be fooled. Public safety leaders will never forget crime victims or dishonor their memory. We will continue demanding justice.