Committee Kills Efforts By Local Lawmaker To Speed Death Penalty Appeals

 Two measures to help “streamline” the state’s death penalty process were defeated Tuesday by Democrats on the Senate Public Safety Committee, according to a press release from state Sen. Joel Anderson, the plan’s chief advocate who represents Wildomar and parts of Lake Elsinore.

Only two votes favored the measures—Anderson’s and fellow Republican Tom Harman’s. At least four Democrats on the seven-member panel opposed the plan, said Anderson aide Jim Kjol.

“This committee has done nothing to help families of murder victims,” said Marc Klaas, father of 12-year-old Polly Klaas who was kidnapped and slain by Richard Allen Davis in 1993.  “Nothing has changed in all these years—Richard Allen Davis still lives while my daughter doesn’t.  I appreciate Senator Anderson efforts, but the majority on this committee isn’t interested in real justice for victims.”

Anderson—whose 36th District stretches from his home base in San Diego County to Wildomar and Lake Elsinore—said: “The Beltway Sniper was arrested, tried and convicted in two states, and executed in seven years.” 

“In California these convicted death row prisoners often outlive their victims’ short lives on earth. These two measures would have helped tackle part of the unreasonable delay of enforcing the death penalty in California.”

Anderson's press release continued:

Specifically, Senate Bill 1514 would have eliminated the automatic appeal of every death penalty case and Senate Constitutional Amendment 20 would have required that any appeals of death penalty cases go to the State Court of Appeal rather than the State Supreme Court.

Both SB 1514 and SCA 20 were also supported by “Three Strikes” author Mike Reynolds, father of 18 year old Kimber Reynolds who was murdered in 1992, and by San Joaquin County District Attorney Jim Willett, a veteran prosecutor for over 31 years.

In his efforts to draw attention to the bills prior to Tuesday's defeat, Anderson had said, “The most heinous murderers should not be afforded special appeal rights beyond those of other convicted criminals. If anything, the sooner these violent murderers are executed the safer it will be for law-abiding citizens.”

In a last September, Anderson compared the number of inmates executed in Texas with the number in California, “where the average time from sentencing until punishment is about 25 years.”

“In the last 20 years, California has executed only 13 murderers while Texas has executed over 400. Justice delayed is justice denied,” Anderson wrote.