A new California bill would let some of the state’s worst criminals, murderers and serial rapists walk out of prison despite sentences of death or life without parole.
The bill was written by state Sen. Dave Cortese and co-authors, including San Francisco’s Sen. Scott Wiener, who wrote a prior bill that decreased the punishment for knowingly infecting someone with HIV.Â
It would let some of the state’s worst killers and rapists go free after serving 20 years, despite far longer sentences.
“This bill would authorize an individual sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a conviction in which one or more special circumstances were found to be true to petition for recall and resentencing if the offense occurred before June 5, 1990, and the individual has served at least 20 years in custody,” the legislation reads. “The bill would authorize the court to modify the petitioner’s sentence to impose a lesser sentence and apply any changes in law that reduce sentences or provide for judicial discretion, or to vacate the petitioner’s conviction and impose judgment on a lesser included offense.”
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The bill was referred to the state Senate’s Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
“It is a slap in the face to victims, who were told that these people would go away for life without the possibility of parole,” state Assemblyman James Gallagher, the body’s Republican leader, told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
It’s part of an incremental push to empty the state’s prisons, he said, which first began with opposition to the death penalty and has expanded over the past decade.
“And with California’s track record right now, these are people who are going to end up being released, who committed murders, rapes, unfathomable crimes against Californians,” Gallagher added. “It’s a dangerous and completely unthinkable policy.”
The bill has received criticism from…
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