California Supreme Court halts voter-approved death penalty measure

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jjdgSQCxwcLVyYwUZX_RDVz8ToUSrKRktHHX41uMQN9TO4-oHwxO_TSDBJzv_sjxb6psZ6ZdwR3HtuolWoZeILjKpOD3d1W1rxx-z2s698FT1CzuXJsbrZFKJJpFZVrkWLFDRYQVFmI/s1600/Robert+Galvan+San+Quentin+DR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="San Quentin Prison's death row" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jjdgSQCxwcLVyYwUZX_RDVz8ToUSrKRktHHX41uMQN9TO4-oHwxO_TSDBJzv_sjxb6psZ6ZdwR3HtuolWoZeILjKpOD3d1W1rxx-z2s698FT1CzuXJsbrZFKJJpFZVrkWLFDRYQVFmI/s400/Robert+Galvan+San+Quentin+DR.jpg" title="San Quentin Prison's death row" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Quentin Prison's death row</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The California Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a voter-approved measure intended to speed up the appeals process for the state's death row inmates to give it time to consider a lawsuit challenging the measure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a one-page decision, the court stayed the "implementation of all provisions of Proposition 66" and set a timeline for filing briefs in the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Proposition 66 would change how appeals are handled, appointing more lawyers to take cases, putting certain types of appeals before trial court judges and setting a five-year deadline for appeals to be heard. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, it can take longer than that for an attorney to be assigned to a case and upward of 25 years to exhaust appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lawsuit by former California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and Ron Briggs, whose father wrote the ballot measure that expanded California's death penalty in 1978, said the reform measure would disrupt the courts, cost more money and limit the ability to mount proper appeals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said the deadlines would set "an inordinately short timeline for the courts to review those complex cases" and result in attorneys cutting corners in their investigations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Supporters of the measure have called the lawsuit a frivolous stall tactic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">California voters faced two death penalty measures in the November election. They rejected a measure that would have abolished the death penalty and narrowly approved Proposition 66.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, December 20, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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California Supreme Court halts voter-approved death penalty measure

San Quentin Prison's death row The California Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a voter-approved measure intended to speed up the appeals...

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