{"id":1341,"date":"2013-12-13T13:17:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T21:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2018-04-03T09:21:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T16:21:50","slug":"california-death-penalty-reform-initiative-filed-with-attorney-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/california-death-penalty-reform-initiative-filed-with-attorney-general\/","title":{"rendered":"California Death Penalty Reform Initiative Filed with Attorney General"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"dropcap\">A<\/span> coalition of District Attorneys, law enforcement officials, and victims\u2019 rights advocates are proposing a statewide ballot initiative to reform the death penalty in California.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year Californians overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for the death penalty. Unfortunately, it\u00a0has become ineffective because of waste, delays, and inefficiencies.\u00a0 Fixing it will save California taxpayers millions of dollars every year, assure due process protections for those sentenced to death\u00a0 and promote justice for murder victims and their families,&#8221; said initiative proponent Kermit Alexander, whose mother, sister, and two nephews were murdered in 1984 by a gang member in Los Angeles. The killer has been on death row since 1986.<\/p>\n<p>This initiative will ensure justice for both victims and defendants by:<\/p>\n<p><b>Reforming the Appeals Process<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Death penalty appeals will first be heard by the California Court of Appeals and then heard by the California Supreme Court if necessary.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<li>A defendant\u2019s claim of actual innocence should not be limited, but frivolous and unnecessary claims should be restricted.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reforming Death Row Housing and Victim Restitution<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office, eliminating single cell housing of death row inmates will save tens of millions of dollars every year.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<li>Death row inmates should be required to work in prison to pay restitution to their victims\u2019 families consistent with the Victims\u2019 Bill of Rights (Marsy\u2019s law). Refusal to work and pay restitution should result in loss of special privileges.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reforming the Appointment of Appellate Counsel and Agency Oversight\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reforming the existing inefficient appeals process for death penalty cases will ensure fairness for both defendants and victims. Capital defendants wait 5 years or more for appointments of their appellate lawyer. By providing prompt appointment of attorneys, the defendant\u2019s claims will be heard sooner.<\/li>\n<li>The state agency that is supposed to expedite secondary review of death penalty cases is operating without any effective oversight, causing long delays and wasting taxpayer dollars. California Supreme Court oversight of this state agency will ensure accountability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>coalition of District Attorneys, law enforcement officials, and victims\u2019 rights advocates are proposing a statewide ballot initiative to reform the death penalty in California. &#8220;Last year Californians overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for the death penalty. Unfortunately, it\u00a0has become ineffective because of waste, delays, and inefficiencies.\u00a0 Fixing it will save California taxpayers millions of dollars every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-penalty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}