Similar to Vote No on Proposition 34 in 2012, we recommend
and endorse No
on 62, Yes on Prop 66. Here is an article explaining why we should
vote yes on Proposition 66:
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.petaluma360.com/news/6016006-181/death-penalty-stirs-emotions-in?ref=TSM&artslide=0
Death penalty stirs emotions in
Petaluma
MATT BROWN
ARGUS-COURIER
STAFF | September 8, 2016, 10:31AM
 |
|
In this Oct. 30, 2015 file photo, Marc Klaas, far left at podium, father
of Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped and slain in 1993; Scott Jones, Sacramento
County sheriff; L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Sheriff Jim
McDonnel join other victims' rights advocates, community leaders, and elected
officials to announce efforts to place an initiative on the 2016 ballot to
streamline the death penalty in California. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
|
It has been
20 years since Richard Allen Davis was sentenced to death for kidnapping,
raping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma in 1993, bringing to a
close a case that shocked and outraged the community while cementing a legacy
as the most horrific crime in the city’s history.
But for
Marc Klaas, Polly’s father, the case is not closed as long as Davis is still
alive. The Marin County resident and president of the KlaasKids Foundation,
which aims to stop crimes against children, also is an advocate for the death
penalty.
Klaas said
he is closely watching two competing state initiatives on the November ballot —
one that would abolish the death penalty in California and one that would
expedite the process. He said seeing Davis put to death would bring a sense of
finality to the case.
“It
would give me satisfaction. It would give my daughter closure,”
he said. “I think she deserves closure. The only way to
get that is for Richard Allen Davis to be put down.”
Prop. 66
would speed up the death penalty process for Davis and the more than 700 other
inmates on California’s death row, the largest in the nation. It would change
the appeals process in death penalty cases, freeing up more attorneys and
judges to hear cases and accelerating the process.
Opponents
of capital punishment, who are against the measure, are backing Prop. 62, which
would abolish the death penalty altogether. It would change all current death
sentences to life without parole, and require inmates to work in prison and pay
restitution to families of victims.
For
Petaluma resident Linda Fox, repealing the death penalty has been her life’s
work ever since meeting a former death row inmate from Washington state, who
had his sentence changed to life in prison, was released on parole, and
advocated against capital punishment.
A
paralegal, Fox retired after a career with the California Appellate Project, a
resource for lawyers representing death row inmates, and now sits on the board
of Death Penalty Focus, an organization seeking to end the death penalty.
She said
that it costs the state less to lock someone up for life than it does to keep
them on death row. Death penalty proponents dispute that claim. Executions have
been suspended in California since 2006 when a federal judge ruled the lethal
injection process would cause undue suffering.
Fox and
other death penalty opponents argue that it does not deter criminals and is
inhumane. The finality of an execution rules out the chance that an inmate
could be found innocent with new evidence, Fox said, citing a case in Texas
where a man was posthumously exonerated after being put to death.
“It’s just
the wrong thing to do,” she said. “Killing people who kill people is simply not
the answer.”
Fox said
she remembers the Polly Klaas case and acknowledged that it is still a fresh
wound for many in Petaluma, even more than two decades later. But, she said,
Polly Klaas’ killer has received undue notoriety partly because he is on death
row.
“The reason
we still know Richard Allen Davis’ name is because he got the death penalty and
he continues to be in the news,” she said. “If he had life without parole, that
would put an end to it. It would ensure he breathes his last breath in prison.”
For Marc Klaas, however, justice will
be served only once Davis is executed. He said convicted murderers like Davis
deserve the highest punishment available.
“These are the worst killers
— cop killers, serial killers, child killers. They set a standard for evil that
needs to be acknowledged,”
he said. “If you give Polly’s killer what he wants —
his life — that’s not punishment.”
(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)
Repeal The Death Penalty? 6 Quotes
From ‘Yes’ And ‘No’ Campaigns
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