Unit 1012 Cover Photo

Unit 1012 Cover Photo

Friday, November 6, 2015

CALIFORNIANS FOR DEATH PENALTY REFORM AND SAVINGS



            In loving memory of the murdered victims of California, Unit 1012 endorses this Pro Death Penalty and Victims’ Rights Organization, ‘Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings’. 

            If you are a registered Californian Voter, please sign the petition and pray as the death penalty is reformed in that State. Please see our blog post, ‘DEFEATING THE DEVIL’S GAME: VOTING NO ON PROPOSITION 34’, to learn more on what the ACLU did to destroy the good people. 



DAs, police, family of slain push for death penalty reform
Posted: Oct 31, 2015 3:46 AM Updated: Oct 31, 2015 4:11 AM
By BRIAN MELLEY

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California prosecutors, police officers and family members of murder victims have launched a campaign to speed up executions for murderers sentenced to death.

Members of the group said Friday that the death penalty reform initiative is aimed at the inefficient process that has left hundreds of killers languishing on death row for decades.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos says voters who rejected a ballot measure to eliminate the death penalty in 2012 showed they support the punishment.

Ramos says appointing appeals lawyers to the process and other proposed reforms could shorten the time from conviction to execution from as long as 30 years to 10 to 15 years. The initiative is likely to duel with another proposed ballot measure that seeks to abolish capital punishment.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


DAs, Police, Family of Slain Push for Death Penalty Changes
By brian melley, associated press
LOS ANGELES — Oct 30, 2015, 7:11 PM ET

California prosecutors, police officers and family members of the slain launched a campaign Friday to speed up executions for murderers sentenced to death.

Sacramento district attorney Anne Marie Schubert said the effort follows through on a promise that law enforcement made when fighting a 2012 ballot initiative that aimed to abolish the death penalty. Rather than get rid of the ultimate punishment, they vowed to fix it.
Schubert said the penalty is reserved for the "worst of the worst:" mass killers, serial killers, cop killers and those who rape and murder children.

The proposed initiative would change the lengthy appeals process by expanding the pool of appellate attorneys and appointing lawyers to the cases at time of sentencing. Currently there's about a five year wait to be assigned a lawyer.

More than 900 killers have been sentenced to death since 1978, but only 13 have been executed.

The state hasn't carried out an execution since 2006 when a federal judge ordered an overhaul of the state's procedures for lethal injection.

A federal appeals court is now considering whether the state's death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because of excessive delays that often don't end with an execution.

"I think a lot people probably want to do away with the death penalty because no one's getting executed in California," said Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, citing the huge expense and long delays. "But it's not because they looked at these gruesome facts that people tortured people, raped children and said, 'No, I think life without the possibility of parole is OK. They just think it's never going to happen with the current system."

The effort comes nearly two years after a group of former governors joined law enforcement officers to push a nearly identical campaign. That effort was shelved when they realized the cost of gathering signatures to get an initiative on the ballot, said San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos.

They have regrouped and changed strategy, but the measure is pretty much the same, Ramos said. No former governors were in attendance at a news conference announcing the campaign.

Ramos says the proposals could shorten the time from conviction to execution from as long as 30 years now to 10 to 15 years in the future.

The initiative is likely to duel with another proposed ballot measure that once again seeks to abolish capital punishment.

The supporter of that effort, anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell, who starred in the TV hit MASH, said speeding up the appeals process could violate inmates' constitutional rights if the courts rubber stamp their convictions.

"I fear that these people are playing to the hope that this is going to shorten the process, make it more meaningful and that people will actually be executed," Farrell said. "I think it couldn't be further from the truth."


Families Of Murder Victims Seek Death Penalty Reforms In California
October 30, 2015 5:39 PM

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)  —  Advocates for death penalty reform are trying to get sweeping changes made in the way California’s justice system.

On Friday, a large group of power players — among them people who have lost loved ones to murder — made their case to the media.

The group, in turn, wants the voters to make the final call on their reform ideas at the ballot box.

KCAL9’s Dave Lopez attended the gathering.

Kermit Alexander, onetime NFL player, was among those who spoke. A gang member killed his mother and three other relatives.

“He put three shots into my mother’s head,” said Alexander choking back tears. The gang member — namely Tiequon Aundray Cox — was sentenced to death in 1865, and is still on death row.

“And her last words were ‘Please don’t hurt my mother and sister,'” said Marc Klaas, speaking about his daughter Polly.

Her murderer was sentenced to death 22 years ago.

“That isn’t justice for my daughter,” Klaas said.

The murder victim’s families were surrounded by DA’s and law enforcement officials who all said the system needs fixing.

The group said they had a budget of $2 million — money already raised to help in an awareness campaign.

They said they hoped to gather 350,000 signatures on petitions to get their reform measures on the November 2016 ballot.

Among the reforms:

• An immediate appeal for the convicted.
• Reduced waiting time. It can take up to five years to get an attorney.
• The average time on death row is 17 years. Advocates want to get that down to 8-10 years.
• They also want to eliminate death row and single cells for inmates and put convicts among the general prison population.

The reform advocates said today that when they first introduced these reforms in 2014, they made a mistake — they lacked funding for an awareness campaign. And now they have it.

Seventeen of the current 750 inmates on death row have been there for more than 30 years, Lopez reported.

Death Penalty Initiative Press Conference
Published on Nov 2, 2015
California prosecutors, police officers and family members of murder victims launched a campaign October 30, 2015, to speed up executions for murderers sentenced to death.

Music by Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech)


   

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