The will of the people is being challenged as the courts continue to stall the implementation of the death penalty. Despite the passage of Prop 66 to speed up executions, California has not conducted an execution since 2006. There are more than 750 people on Death Row. Of those, more than 20 have lost their final appeal.
Michele Hanisee President of the Association of Los Angeles District Attorneys says the American Civil Liberties Union, a longtime opponent of the death penalty, had to file a new lawsuit to continue their campaign to prevent any executions from taking place.
“After years of litigation and writing ballot initiatives, all their prior lawsuits and arguments had been defeated and Proposition 66, which the voters enacted, said the execution protocol is not subject to this public vetting process and the Administrative Procedures Act. You have to understand the execution protocol has always been a 50-60-page-long document. It’s a soup to nuts recipe for what we’re going to do if we’re going to execute someone, including, are they sane enough? Do we move them to a secure cell? What is their last meal going to be? Do we get them a minister? Everything step-by-step. Now the ACLU is saying, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa! All that stuff? That’s not exempt from the public commentary process. Only the specific part about how you kill them.’ “
She says the other stuff was never an issue for the ACLU before.
“It’s just another delay tactic.”
Michele Hanisee was a guest on McIntyre in the Morning.
By Sandy Wells
KABC News