ACTION ALERT

Dear League members and friends

We need your help to end new lethal injection proposals! Please contact the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to tell them you DO NOT support their new proposals for implementing the death penalty in California.

WHAT TO DO:

Send an email or letter to the CDCR:

CDCR, Regulation and Policy Management Branch
P.O. Box 942883
Sacramento, CA 94283-0001
Email: LI.comments@cdcr.ca.gov
Re: Comment on Proposed Lethal Injection Regulations, Number 15-10

Dear Mr. Lockwood:

I am deeply concerned about the CDCR's new proposed lethal injection regulations.

Specifically, I am concerned about the following in the new proposed regulations:

Note: choose one or more of the following messages:

1) No procedure for addressing botched executions: The regulations fail to provide a procedure in the event a botched execution occurs. This is specifically concerning given the gruesome botched executions in Oklahoma and Arizona last year.

2) Drug experimentation: The regulations name two drugs (amobarbital and secobarbital) that have never been used in lethal injection. If the CDCR is going to resume executions, the methods used must be well researched and fully understood. I do not support my tax dollars being used for what amounts to human experimentation.

3) Fiscal impact: The CDCR has not performed an adequate economic impact assessment. In proposing these regulations, they have failed to account for all of the associated costs. The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates costs associated with the death penalty to be $150 million annually.

In conclusion, I support eliminating the death penalty in California and I oppose implementing the proposed regulations on lethal injection as drafted.

Sincerely,

Name and Contact Information

BACKGROUND:
For the last decade, California has not made any use of the death penalty: no executions. The CDCR has just proposed new lethal injection regulations in an attempt to bring back the death penalty.

These new rules will leave the state with more uncertainty in a system that is deeply flawed from beginning to end. They create the possibility of botched executions due to untried methods and a failure to assess the huge cost of the death penalty to the state.

The state is required to listen and respond to your concerns about its execution proposals. If you speak up, then you will play a direct role in the outcome. Tell the CDCR you oppose these new, fundamentally flawed proposals for killing prisoners.

LEAGUE POSITION:
The League of Women Voters supports abolition of the death penalty. As part of this, we support measures which limit the use of the death penalty rather than increase its use.

Thank you for helping advance the cause of eliminating the death penalty in California. Your message to the CDCR will help make California a stronger, more compassionate, and more just place to live.

Want to do more?

Forward this email to your friends.
Donate to the League and help us continue our advocacy efforts.
Share this action alert via Facebook and Twitter.

League of Women Voters of Santa Monica

P.O. Box 1265

Santa Monica, California 90406

310-692-1494