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| Title and Summary | Analysis | Arguments and Rebuttals | Text of Proposed Law |
PROP |
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. VICTIMS’ RIGHTS. PAROLE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. |
| ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF PROPOSITION 9 |
ARGUMENT AGAINST PROPOSITION 9 |
No pain is worse than losing a child or a loved one to murder . . . EXCEPT WHEN THE PAIN IS MAGNIFIED BY A SYSTEM THAT PUTS CRIMINALS' RIGHTS AHEAD OF THE RIGHTS OF INNOCENT VICTIMS. The pain is real. It’s also unnecessary to victims and costly to taxpayers. Marsy Nicholas was a 21-year-old college student at UC Santa Barbara studying to become a teacher for disabled children. Her boyfriend ended her promising life with a shotgun blast at close range. Due to a broken system, the pain of losing Marsy was just the beginning. Marsy’s mother, Marcella, and family were grieving, experiencing pain unlike anything they’d ever felt. The only comfort was the fact Marsy’s murderer was arrested. Imagine Marcella’s agony when she came face-to-face with Marsy’s killer days later . . . at the grocery store! How could he be free? He’d just killed Marcella’s little girl. This can’t be happening, she thought. Marsy’s killer was free on bail but her family wasn’t even notified. He could’ve easily killed again. CALIFORNIA’S CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES RIGHTS FOR RAPISTS, MURDERERS, CHILD MOLESTERS, AND DANGEROUS CRIMINALS. PROPOSITION 9 LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD, GUARANTEEING CRIME VICTIMS THE RIGHT TO JUSTICE AND DUE PROCESS, ending further victimization of innocent people by a system that frequently neglects, ignores, and forever punishes them. Proposition 9 creates California’s Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights to:
During these difficult budget times, PROP. 9 PROTECTS TAXPAYERS. Currently, taxpayers spend millions on hearings for dangerous criminals that have virtually no chance of release. “Helter Skelter” inmates Bruce Davis and Leslie Van Houten, followers of Charles Manson, convicted of multiple brutal murders, have had 38 parole hearings in 30 years. That’s 38 times the families involved have been forced to relive the painful crime and pay their own expenses to attend the hearing, plus 38 hearings that taxpayers have had to subsidize. Prop. 9 allows parole judges to increase the number of years between parole hearings. CALIFORNIA’S NONPARTISAN LEGISLATIVE ANALYST SAID IT ACHIEVES, “POTENTIAL NET SAVINGS IN THE LOW TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS . . ..” PROP. 9 ALSO PREVENTS POLITICIANS FROM RELEASING DANGEROUS INMATES TO ALLEVIATE PRISON OVERCROWDING. Prop. 9 respects victims, protects taxpayers, and makes California safer. It’s endorsed by public safety leaders, victims’ advocates, taxpayers, and working families. PROP. 9 IS ABOUT FAIRNESS FOR LAW ABIDING CITIZENS. They deserve rights equal to those of criminals. ON BEHALF OF ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE CRIME VICTIMS, PLEASE VOTE YES ON 9! MARCELLA M. LEACH, Co-Founder REBUTTAL TO ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF PROPOSITION 9 Our hearts go out to the victims of violent crime and their families. Prop. 9 was put on the ballot by one such family whose family member was killed 25 years ago. But Prop. 9 is unnecessary and will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. During the past 25 years many fundamental changes have been made to our criminal justice laws such as the “Three Strikes Law;” and the “Victims’ Bill of Rights” which placed victims’ rights into the Constitution. Under current law victims have the right to be notified if their offender is released, to receive advance notice of criminal proceedings, and to participate in parole hearings and sentencing. There’s already a state-funded Victims of Crime Resource Center to educate victims about their rights and help them through the process. That’s why Prop. 9 is a horrible drain on taxpayers during the height of a budget crisis. It’s why the independent Legislative Analyst said it could cost “hundreds of millions of dollars annually.” Instead of streamlining government, Prop. 9 creates serious duplication of existing laws. It places pages of complex law into our Constitution. And once in the Constitution, if the laws don’t work, and need to be changed or modernized in any way, it could require a ¾ vote of the Legislature. That’s a threshold even higher than required to pass the state budget! Vote NO on Prop. 9. JEANNE WOODFORD, Former Warden |
Aren’t you getting tired of one individual paying millions to put some idea, however well-meaning, on the ballot that ends up costing taxpayers billions? Prop. 9 is the poster child for this, bought and paid for by one man—Henry Nicholas III. Prop. 9 is a misleading proposition that exploits Californians’ concern for crime victims. It preys on our emotions in order to rewrite the State Constitution and change the way California manages its prisons and jails, threatening to worsen our overcrowding crises, at both the state and local level. Prop. 9 is a costly, unnecessary initiative. In fact, many of the components in Prop. 9—including the requirements that victims be notified of critical points in an offender’s legal process as well as the rights for victims to be heard throughout the legal process—were already approved by voters in Prop. 8 in 1982, the Victims’ Bill of Rights. That’s why Prop. 9 is truly unnecessary and an expensive duplication of effort. According to the Appeal Democrat newspaper, “this initiative is about little more than political grandstanding,” (“Our View: Tough talk on crime just hot air,” 3/1/08). Voters sometimes don’t realize that there is no mechanism for initiatives to be legally reviewed for duplication of current law. So, sometimes if it seems like a way to get something passed, the writers include current law in their initiatives. That’s clearly what has been done in Prop. 9. Californians are understandably concerned about safety and sympathetic to crime victims. Some of the provisions seem reasonable. Yet they hardly require an initiative to accomplish them. For instance, passage of Prop. 9 would require law enforcement to give victims a “Marsy’s Law” card spelling out their rights. Does the state really need to put this in the State Constitution? And at what cost? Prop. 9 promises to stop the early release of criminals. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says this could potentially “amount to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.” The Legislative Analyst also points out that “the state does not now generally release inmates early from prison.” California’s parole system is already among the most strict in the United States. The actual annual parole rate for those convicted of second degree murder or manslaughter has been less than 1% of those eligible for 20 years! So, the need for these tremendously costly changes to existing parole policy is unjustified given the costs involved. Further, anything approved in Prop. 9 regarding prisoners and parole is subject to federal legal challenges. So, the likelihood that Prop. 9 would have any impact at all is negligible at best. Taking money out of an already cash-strapped state budget to pay for an unnecessary initiative could mean cuts to every other priority of Government, including education, healthcare, and services for the poor and elderly. Vote No on Prop. 9. It’s unnecessary. It’s expensive. It’s bad law. SHEILA A. BEDI, Executive Director REBUTTAL TO ARGUMENT AGAINST PROPOSITION 9 It’s sad when special interests resort to personal attacks against crime victims and their families. MAKE NO MISTAKE: TODAY, IN CALIFORNIA, INNOCENT VICTIMS ARE BEING PUNISHED BY A BROKEN SYSTEM. Here are two examples, among thousands: Anna Del Rio, whose daughter was executed by a “shooter for gangs,” was intimidated by gang members—in court—and NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK or wear a picture of her daughter. Marguerite Hemphill left her paralyzed husband’s bedside to attend the parole hearing for her daughter’s killer. After driving 300 miles, she learned the hearing was postponed. HEMPHILL WASN’T NOTIFIED AND HAS NO RECOURSE . . . she must repeat the trip again. If victims already have rights, why does this happen? MURDERERS, RAPISTS, AND CHILD MOLESTERS HAVE RIGHTS GUARANTEED BY THE CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION. CRIME VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES HAVE NO SIMILAR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. PROPOSITION 9 RESTORES JUSTICE, DUE PROCESS, HUMAN DIGNITY, AND FAIRNESS. It makes convicted criminals pay their debt to society by prohibiting politicians from releasing criminals just to reduce prison populations. Crime Victims United of California, Justice for Homicide Victims, Justice for Murdered Children, Memory of Victims Everywhere, National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children, police chiefs, sheriffs, and district attorneys say VOTE YES. TRUST CALIFORNIANS: 1.2 MILLION PEOPLE, DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS, PUT PROP. 9 ON THE BALLOT. IT CAN SAVE TAXPAYERS TENS OF MILLIONS according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst. More importantly, Prop. 9 can save lives. Remember the pain endured by victims Anna Del Rio and Marguerite Hemphill. Please vote YES. MARCELLA LEACH, Co-Founder |
Arguments printed on this page are the opinions of the authors and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency.
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