SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Supporters and opponents of a voter-approved measure to speed up executions in California are both claiming victory following a California Supreme Court ruling on its constitutionality.
The court on Thursday upheld the measure, but said its requirement that courts resolve appeals by condemned inmates within five years was advisory, not mandatory.
Christina Von der Ahe Rayburn, an attorney for opponents of the proposition, said the Supreme Court had rendered the deadlines in Proposition 66 toothless. She said that would allow courts to continue their critical role in carefully reviewing the appeals of the state’s death row inmates to avoid the execution of an innocent person.
Kent Scheidegger, an attorney for supporters of the measure, said Proposition 66 would go into effect almost entirely as written and Californians finally had a chance to see justice carried out in the very worst murder cases.
