Thursday, April 11, 2019

VICTIMS OF MURDER JUSTICE TOUR IN CALIFORNIA


 
California’s death penalty debate got personal on Thursday. Family members of murder victims gathered in Sacramento to urge Governor Gavin Newsom to change his mind and once again allow executions in California.


On 13 March 2019, Newsom announced that he has ordered a moratorium on the state's death penalty, preventing any execution in the state as long as he is still in office as governor. We, the comrades of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, want you to hear from murder victims’ families who are unhappy about the decision. They united to slam him again on Thursday March 11, 2019.

We recommend following the Georgian Crusaders’ example, where the fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants.

 Two mothers whose sons were murdered embrace after meeting with Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. Phyllis Loya, left, and Sandra Friend, right, met with Schubert, far right, in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on the death penalty on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 in Sacramento. Loya is the mother of slain Pittsburg police officer Larry Lasater Jr. and Friend is the mother of 8-year-old Michael Lyons, who was abducted in Yuba City, then tortured, raped and murdered.
Renee C. Byer rbyer@sacbee.com


Family members of murder victims slam California Gov. Newsom's moratorium on death penalty

A group of family members of murder victims in California, along with a number of district attorneys from across the state, gathered in Sacramento on Thursday to denounce Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent moratorium on the death penalty.

At a press conference led by Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, the family members and district attorneys slammed Newsom’s move to put a moratorium on the executions of the 737 inmates currently incarcerated in the Western Hemisphere’s largest death row and called on the California governor to rescind his executive order.

“Governor Newsom took a knife and stabbed all the victims and all the victims’ families in the heart,” Spitzer said.

Spitzer also criticized Newsom for travelling to El Salvador this week instead of meeting with murder victims’ families. Newsom is in the Central American nation in an attempt to counter the Trump administration’s harsh immigration stance and recent moves to cut millions of dollars in U.S. aid to the country.

“The governor decided to spend the week out of state, out of country, to meet with people he thinks are victims, when he could have met with victims in his own state,” he said.

Newsom’s office did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

The press conference comes a day after prosecutors in the state announced they will seek the death penalty if they convict the man suspected of being the notorious "Golden State Killer," who eluded capture for decades.

Prosecutors from four counties, including Orange County, announced their decision on Wednesday during a short court hearing for Joseph DeAngelo. He was arrested a year ago based on DNA evidence linking him to at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and '80s.

Ron Harrington, whose brother Keith Harrington’s murder is one of those linked to the alleged Golden State Killer, castigated Newsom’s decision. Keith Harrington, along with his wife, Patti, were found bludgeoned to death in August of 1980 inside their home in a gated community just outside Dana Point, Calif.


“The Golden State Killer is the worst of the worst of the worst ever,” Ron Harrington said Thursday during the press conference. “He is the poster child for the death penalty.”

Harrington added: “Gov. Newsom, please explain to the Golden State Killer’s victims how they should be lenient and compassionate.”

Steve Herr – whose son, Sam Herr, was murdered and then dismembered by Daniel Wozniak in May 2010 inside an apartment in Costa Mesa, Calif. – also criticized Newsom.

Wozniak, who was sentenced to capital punishment in 2016, killed Herr and his college friend and tutor, Julie Kibuishi, as part of a plan to steal money Herr had saved from his military service in Afghanistan so that he could pay for his upcoming wedding and honeymoon.

Wozniak then staged the crime scene to make it appear as though Kibuishi had been sexually assaulted by Herr and that Herr had gone on the run.

The convicted murderer also dismembered both victims by cutting off the hands of both and removing Herr’s head.

“Gov. Newsom wasn’t there when I walked into my son’s apartment and found the body of Julie Kibuishi absolutely defiled,” Herr’s father said. “He wasn’t there when I walked into the mortuary and saw my son all sewed up.”


Newsom’s moratorium, which he signed last month, is seen as largely a symbolic move as California has not executed an inmate since 2006 amid legal challenges, but it still marked a major victory for opponents of capital punishment given the state’s size and its national political influence.

“I’ve gotten a sense over many, many years of the disparity in our criminal justice system,” Newsom said during a press conference on Wednesday. “We can make a more enlightened choice.”

Newsom also ordered in March that the equipment used in executions at San Quentin State Prison – the facility where capital punishment was carried out for men in California – be shut down and removed.

“We cannot advance the death penalty in an effort to soften the blow of what happens to these victims,” Newsom said. “If someone kills, we do not kill. We’re better than that.”

Despite recent polling indicating that support for the death penalty is at its lowest level since the early 1970s, Newsom’s order still bucks the will of most California residents. California voters previously rejected an initiative to abolish capital punishment in the state and instead, in 2016, voted in favor of Proposition 66 to help speed up executions.


Newsom’s move to halt executions was panned last month by President Trump, who has been a harsh critic of Newsom's ever since the governor took office earlier this year.

“Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!” Trump tweeted.

California has executed 13 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and the state has the most people on death row in the country. Since the 1970s, 79 death row inmates have died of natural causes in the state and 26 by suicide. The last execution held in California occurred in 2006 when 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen, who was convicted of killing three people, was executed.

Since then a series of stays of execution issued by the Federal District Court in San Francisco have held up any executions in the state, but there are now 25 inmates on death row who have exhausted all their appeals. Newsom said that none of the inmates currently on death row will have their sentences commuted, but will possibly be transferred back into the state’s general prison population.

“I believe I’m doing the right thing,” he said. “I cannot sign off on executing hundreds and hundreds of human beings knowing that among them there will be innocent people.”

 
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)

Victims’ Parents Urge Newsom to Stop Death Penalty Reprieve
POSTED 3:39 PM, APRIL 11, 2019, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Parents of Californians murdered by people now on death row shared gruesome details of their loved ones’ killings Thursday as they launched a statewide tour to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse his moratorium on executions.

“He was like a thief in the night that stole justice from us,” said Phyllis Loya, whose son Larry Lasater Jr. was killed on duty as a police officer.

Newsom last month issued a reprieve to the more than 700 people sitting on California’s death row, meaning none will be executed as long as he is in office. He also ordered the state to withdraw its lethal injection regulations and dismantled the “death chamber” at San Quentin State Prison.

California’s death row is the nation’s largest, but the state has not executed anyone since 2006. Voters in 2016 approved a ballot measure to speed up executions, and district attorneys and the families of victims’ accused Newsom of defying the voters’ will.


Todd Spitzer, Orange County’s district attorney, said the “Victims of Murder Justice” tour will travel to all 80 Assembly and 40 Senate districts. He did not announce new legal actions aimed at stopping Newsom’s moratorium. But Spitzer requested that Newsom review each case individually to make clemency decisions rather than issuing a blanket reprieve. He also said the tour is designed to pressure lawmakers; a proposal has been introduced to again put a measure to permanently stop the death penalty on the 2020 ballot.

Families criticized Newsom for saying he couldn’t sleep at night knowing an innocent person might be killed, saying they could not sleep because they had seen their children’s bodies defiled and, in one case, sewn back together.

“A real leader would say let me listen to this case by case,” said Steve Herr, whose son Sam Herr was murdered in 2010 by Daniel Wozniak, who shot Herr in the head, made it look as if he raped a female victim and dismembered him. Herr said Newsom will never know what it was like to see the murder scene and, later, his son’s body sewn back together so it could be buried in one piece.

Jeri Oliver, whose son Danny Oliver was killed while on duty as a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy, had perhaps the harshest words for Newsom. Luis Bracamontes was convicted last year for Oliver’s murder and said during the trial he wished he had killed more cops. Oliver said Newsom owed her a one-on-one meeting to discuss the case.

“You turned the knife again in my heart,” Oliver said. “I dare you to meet with me and I can give you some facts that you don’t want to hear. I challenge you Gov. Newsom — come meet with me.”


Newsom has said the death penalty is applied unevenly and often discriminates based on race and class and creates the possibility of an innocent person being executed.

Spokesman Jesse Melgar said Newsom sends his “heartfelt condolences to survivor families.”

“The Governor sought out and heard from many survivor families as he was making his decision on the death penalty,” Melgar said in an email. “Some supported the death penalty while others strongly believed the state shouldn’t take another life in the name of their loved one.”

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week began Monday, and several attendees said Newsom should have spent it meeting with crime victims in California rather than traveling to El Salvador. Newsom spent three days in the Central American country to learn about the poverty and violence driving migrants to come to the United States.

Newsom’s office did not offer comment on that criticism.

A woman holds up a sign with ‘Too many terrorists in prison’ written on one side and ‘Kill them all’ written on the other during a rally in Tel Aviv on April 19, 2016 to support Elor Azaria. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/08/israelis-palestinian-attackers/ ….. ….. http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-group-of-50-families-in-israel-for.html]


Protest against death penalty moratorium
Californians voted to approve the death penalty in 2012 and re-affirmed their stance again in 2016.
Author: Richard Allyn, Reporter
Published: 10:25 PM PDT April 11, 2019
Updated: 5:36 AM PDT April 12, 2019

SAN DIEGO — The father of a murder victim on Thursday voiced outrage over Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to put the death penalty on hold.

Steve Herr’s 26-year old son Sam and his 23-year-old college friend Julie Kibuishi were murdered and dismembered by Dan Wozniak in 2018.

“Dan Wozniak took the lives of Sam Herr and Julie Kibuishi. Governor Newsom took away their justice. And that governor, is immoral,” said Steve Herr.

Sam's parents were part of a passionate coalition of victims’ family members and district attorneys who spoke out against Newsom’s recent moratorium on the death penalty – urging him reverse course.

Earlier this week and despite the moratorium, prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty in the case of the Golden State killer, Joseph Deangelo, who killed 13 people.

Family pleas come during National Crime Victims Rights week.

During the candlelight tribute in San Diego for crime survivors, District Attorney Summer Stephan voiced concern for victims and their loved ones dealing with the drastic shift in the justice system.

However, not all victims’ family members are opposed to the governor’s decision.

Carlos and Elizabeth Munoz’s only son, Juan Carlos, was murdered in National City in 2015. His alleged killers were brought to justice, but they are not pushing for the death penalty.

In response, Governor Newsom on Thursday said he sent his ‘heartfelt condolences’ to family members of victims killed by people now on death row. The governor further said that he met with many survivor families before making his decision. 

Californians voted to approve the death penalty in 2012 and re-affirmed their stance again in 2016.

Protesters gathered in central Tbilisi the evening of May 31 after a high-profile murder case resulted in an acquittal and suspicions of official impunity. (Photo: Giorgi Lomsadze)
 




OTHER LINKS:
A coalition of California District Attorneys and family members of murder victims respond to the state's death penalty moratorium imposed by Governor Gavin Newsom last month. [VIDEO SHARED]


MURDER VICTIMS’ FAMILIES AGAINST GAVIN NEWSOM IDEA OF A MORATORIUM ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN CALIFORNIA







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