2012 Ballot Preview
From Mobilize the Immigrant Vote!
In 2012, California expects a series of ballot initiatives that will again have major impact on the state and have ripple effects across the country. Organizations across California are collaborating on how to move tax and fiscal reform measures through the ballot box. In this issue, we focus on the statewide efforts to repeal the death penalty in California.
In August of this year, a new network of long-time activists and new advocates, California Taxpayers for Justice, announced a November 2012 initiative to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. They are calling their efforts the SAFE California campaign.
The SAFE California campaign reveals startling statistics about the injustice in convictions and the disproportionate impacts on families of color, including immigrant families. One study found that 2 out of 3 death penalty cases are reversed in California . Other statistics share that African Americans make up 41% of death row members, but only 12% of the population. In 2007, Latinos made up 50% of death penalty sentences, but only 37% of the population .
In Los Angeles in 2007, 50% of murder cases with white or Asian victims were solved, but only 35% of cases with Latino or African American victims were. As a recent article in Colorlines notes , the execution of Troy Davis, an African American man who hundreds of thousands across the world believed was likely innocent, has recruited millions of new people to the movement against the death penalty.
MIV will be sharing future information about this campaign in subsequent bulletins.
Signature gathering to qualify the SAFE CA Act for the November 2012 ballot has begun. For more information about the California campaign to end the death penalty, contact: Natasha Minsker, Campaign Manager, at Natasha@safecalifornia.org or Elvia Meza (ACLU-SC) at emeza@aclu-sc.org.
November 3rd, 2011 at 6:24 am
[...] In 2012, California expects a series of ballot initiatives that will again have major impact on the state and have ripple effects across the country. Organizations across California are collaborating on how to move tax and fiscal reform measures through the ballot box. In this issue, we focus on the statewide efforts to repeal the death penalty in California. Read more [...]