[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CONN., ALA., KAN., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 14



CONNECTICUT:

State Supreme Court to hear former death row inmate's appeal


The state Supreme Court is set to hear a former death row inmate's appeal of 
one of his murder convictions.

Justices will hear Russell Peeler Jr.'s case Monday. He's seeking a new trial 
in the 1997 killing of Rudolph Snead Jr. in Bridgeport.

The Supreme Court in 2003 ordered a new trial in the Snead case, saying a judge 
wrongly disqualified Peeler's lawyer. Peeler could no longer afford the lawyer 
he wanted for his 2013 retrial. He was convicted again after the state hired 
another lawyer.

Peeler wants the state to pay for the attorney he wants.

Peeler also ordered the 1999 killings of an 8-year-old boy witness in the Snead 
case and the boy's mother. He was sentenced to death, but the state no longer 
has the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA----impending execution

see: http://www.phadp.org/?q=node/556

(source: phadp.org)






KANSAS:

Kansas Supreme Court to hear Kleypas death-penalty appeal


A man condemned to death for the 1996 rape and killing of a southeast Kansas 
college student again is asking the state's highest court to throw out his 
sentence.

The Kansas Supreme Court on Monday morning was to hear arguments involving 
60-year-old Gary Kleypas' appeal.

Kleypas was convicted of attacking and killing 20-year-old Pittsburg State 
University student Carrie Williams in 1996. He became the state's 1st person 
condemned to die in more than 3 decades.

After the state Supreme Court in 2001 overturned Kleypas' death sentence, 
another jury restored it in 2008.

At the time of Williams' death, Kleypas was on parole for a 1977 murder in 
Missouri.

The Kansas Supreme Court last month upheld a death sentence for the 1st time 
since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1994.



CALIFORNIA:

Faster Executions or None at All? California Voters May Get to Choose


If there's one thing supporters and opponents of the death penalty can agree 
on, it's this: The system is broken.

Since California reinstated capital punishment in 1977, 117 death row inmates 
have died. But only 15 of them have been executed. The vast majority have died 
of natural causes or suicide.

When he was chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald George caused 
a stir when he said "the leading cause of death on death row in California is 
old age." The system, he said, is dysfunctional - and few would disagree.

Even before a federal judge blocked executions in 2006, the pace of implemented 
death sentences was slow. It wasn't unusual for condemned inmates to spend 2 
decades on death row, as their legal appeals slowly wound through the courts.

To death penalty supporters, that delay is a travesty of justice and 
disrespectful to crime victims and their families who, they say, deserve to see 
the ultimate sentence implemented.

But to death penalty opponents, the seemingly endless delays prove that capital 
punishment is unworkable and should be scrapped altogether.

Come November, California voters could have two completely different options 
for fixing the system. 2 groups are preparing to collect signatures for ballot 
measures that would present stark choices.

One, the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016, would limit inmate 
appeals, which can drag on for decades, and expedite executions. It would also 
give the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation more latitude 
in housing condemned inmates and require them to work, with 70 percent of their 
wages going to crime victims.

The other proposal, which ballot measure proponent Mike Farrell calls "The 
Justice That Works Act of 2016," would ban executions altogether and convert 
all existing death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of 
parole.

The Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016 is current being reviewed by 
the Attorney General's Office. A similar measure was proposed last year and 
endorsed by 3 former California governors. It never made it to the ballot.

An attorney advising proponents of the current death penalty reform measure 
told me that first effort was "controlled by crime victim families," suggesting 
it didn't have the kind of professional political consultants needed to make it 
to the ballot.

This time around, he said, Sacramento-based strategist Aaron McLear and his 
firm, Redwood Pacific, will guide the effort.

This week the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office released its fiscal 
review of that measure. While acknowledging the measure would affect various 
costs, "the magnitude of these effects would depend on how certain provisions 
in the measure are interpreted and implemented," the LAO wrote.

In conclusion, it wrote:

--Increased state costs that could be in the tens of millions of dollars 
annually for several years related to direct appeals and habeas corpus 
proceedings, with the fiscal impact on such costs being unknown in the longer 
run.

--Potential state correctional savings that could be in the tens of millions of 
dollars annually.

Proponents of the measure to ban capital punishment must be more pleased with 
the LAO analysis of their measure. The LAO estimates a "net reduction in state 
and local government costs of potentially around $150 million annually within a 
few years due to the elimination of the death penalty." You can be sure that 
will end up in a TV commercial for the measure.

Proponents of both measures have yet to collect a single signature. Assuming 
they get a green light from the attorney general and the secretary of state, 
they'll have 180 days to collect the necessary signatures to put it before 
voters.

If both succeed, they'll likely join a November 2016 ballot with measures 
related to legalizing pot, raising the minimum wage and strengthening gun 
control. All that, plus a presidential election and the race to replace 
retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.

In other words, a political junkie's dream come true.

(source: KQED news)