Page 8 The Skanner October 12, 2016
News
Repeal or Reform? Death Penalty Voter Decisions for 3 States
California, Nebraska, Oklahoma will all face ballot measures on capital punishment this fall
“If it can happen to an
honorably
discharged
Marine with no criminal
record or criminal histo-
ry, it can happen to any-
body in America,” Blood-
sworth said.
In the unlikely event
both competing mea-
sures cross the 50 per-
cent threshold, the one
with the most “yes” votes
would take efect. If nei-
ther passes, the current
system would remain.
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
California’s dysfunction-
al death penalty faces a
fate in November that
seems itting: voters can
put it out of its misery,
or ix it so it does what
it promises. The state is
among three where vot-
ers will make decisions
on capital punishment.
California’s ballot ini-
tiatives — one would re-
peal capital punishment,
the other would speed
up appeals so convicted
murderers are actually
executed — are fueled
by those who agree only
that the current system
is broken, leaving mur-
der victims’ kin grieving
and the condemned lan-
guishing on death row.
Voters in Nebraska will
be asked whether they
want to reinstate the
death penalty and Okla-
homa residents will de-
cide whether to make it
harder to abolish it.
In California, more
than 900 convicted mur-
derers have been sent to
death row since 1978 —
but only 13 have been ex-
ecuted in the state. Many
more have died of nat-
ural causes and no one
has been put to death in
more than a decade ater
a judge ordered an over-
haul to the state’s lethal
injection procedure.
Executions have mostly
been in decline since the
turn of the century and
last year reached their
AP PHOTO/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ, FILE
By Brian Melley
Associated Press
In this Dec. 13, 2005 ile photo, anti-death penalty demonstrators protest outside San Quentin State Prison
in San Quention, Calif., during the execution of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the founder of the Crips gang.
California voters face opposite choices to ix the state’s broken death penalty. They can repeal capital
punishment in November 2016 or reform it so that convicted murderers are actually executed.
lowest level in 25 years,
with 28 prisoners killed.
Capital punishment has
been either legislatively
or judicially repealed in
eight states since 2000,
according to Robert Dun-
ham, executive director
of the Death Penalty In-
formation Center.
CALIFORNIA:
ABOLISH
The referendum to re-
peal California’s death
penalty and replace it
with life in prison with-
out parole is a repeat of a
2012 ballot measure that
failed 52 percent to 48
percent. Only voters in
Arizona and twice in Or-
egon have repealed the
death penalty and both
states later reversed
course to reinstate it.
The California repeal
efort is supported by de-
fense lawyers plus lumi-
naries including former
President Jimmy Carter,
Netlix CEO Reed Hast-
ings and hedge fund bil-
lionaire Tom Steyer.
Proponents of Prop-
osition 62 argue elimi-
nating it it would save
California $150 million a
year, mostly in reduced
legal fees plus cheaper
prison costs since death
row inmates who get
single cells could be dou-
ble-bunked. California’s
inance director has es-
timated the proposed
reforms to speed up the
death penalty could save
the state $30 million an-
nually.
They also point to
wrongful
convictions.
Kirk Bloodsworth, who
spent nearly nine years
in a Maryland prison
for the sexual assault
and bludgeoning death
“
of a 9-year-old girl in
Maryland, was the irst
condemned inmate in
the United States freed
because of DNA results
in 1993. Another man lat-
er pleaded guilty to the
murder.
It is our primary goal as a labor union to better the lives of all people working in
the building trades through advocacy, civil demonstration, and the long-held belief
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A family wage, and the beneits that go with it, not only strengthens families, but also
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Our family wage agenda relects our commitment to people working in the building trades, and
to workers everywhere. In this small way, we are doing our part to help people achieve the American Dream.
This dream that workers can hold dear regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, creed, or religious beliefs.
Representing more than 5,000 construction workers in Oregon State.
NEBRASKA:
REINSTATE
Lawmakers in Nebras-
ka abolished the death
penalty last year and vot-
ers there are being asked
whether it should be re-
instated.
Republican Gov. Pete
Ricketts, who helped i-
nance the ballot drive
with $200,000 of his own
money, insists lawmak-
ers were out of touch
with their constituents
when they got rid of capi-
tal punishment.
Death penalty oppo-
nents have appealed to
the state’s conservative
ideals, arguing the pun-
ishment is expensive and
ineicient because no
one has been executed in
Nebraska since 1997.
Last month, Catholic
leaders launched a state-
wide campaign urging
voters not to reinstate
the punishment and
promised to raise the is-
‘If it can happen to an honorably discharged
Marine with no criminal record or criminal
history, it can happen to anybody in America’
We honor the many accomplishments
of African Americans.
Paciic Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters
CALIFORNIA:
SPEED UP
California’s prosecu-
tors and law enforce-
ment are leading the
opposing measure to
“mend, not end” capital
punishment. They say
Proposition 66 will begin
to clear the legal bottle-
neck blocking the path to
the death chamber at San
Quentin State Prison.
“It shouldn’t take de-
cades upon decades,”
said Sacramento District
Attorney Anne Marie
Schubert, who helped
drat the initiative. “I’m
not a rabid dog about the
death penalty, but I think
said. “I’d like to see the
last breath that Rhoades
takes. I really would. I
think that’s what Michael
had to endure.”
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it should be an option in
the rarest of the most hei-
nous cases that exist in
our society.”
The reformers want
to trim state appeals of
death sentences to ive
years, assigning some to
trial judges and expand-
ing the pool of lawyers
taking cases. It would
have no control over fed-
eral appeals.
Those seeking to abol-
ish the death penalty say
the reforms will result in
incompetent lawyers be-
ing assigned appeals and
forced to meet arbitrary
deadlines that will over-
whelm already strained
trial courts.
Death penalty sup-
porters point to heinous
crimes and the grieving
family members of vic-
tims who have long wait-
ed for justice.
Sandy Friend’s 8-year-
old son, Michael Lyons,
was kidnapped, stabbed
70 to 80 times with a knife
and bludgeoned 20 years
ago in Northern Califor-
nia. Robert Rhoades, the
barber who murdered
him, was also convicted
of murdering and raping
a young woman and sen-
tenced to death for both.
“Robert Rhoades is just
the poster child for the
death penalty and there
are people who are worse
than him. These people
are monsters,” Friend
sue in church services
before the election.
There are 10 prisoners
on death row in Nebras-
ka. The state’s last execu-
tion was in 1997.
OKLAHOMA:
KEEP IT AROUND
Voters in Oklahoma,
where executions are on
hold ater mistakes in the
past two executions, will
consider enshrining the
death penalty in the state
constitution, making it
harder for legislators or
courts to end it.
“There are people that
are trying to remove the
death penalty from be-
ing used,” said state Rep.
Lewis Moore, R-Arcadia,
one of the measure’s au-
thors. “We wanted that
to continue to be a viable
alternative.”
Among other things,
the initiative declares
that all death penalty
statutes are in efect, that
the methods of execution
can be changed and that
“the death penalty is not
cruel and unusual pun-
ishment.”
Oklahoma has 48 pris-
oners on death row. Its
most recent execution
was last year.
Associated Press writers
David Crary in New York,
Grant Schulte in Lincoln,
Nebraska, and Tim Talley
in Oklahoma City contrib-
uted to this report.