Proposition 34 would end the death penalty

[Joe Cocker]

In California up for vote again

There are currently 725 inmates on death row in California. Since 1977, approximately 60 condemned inmates have died from natural causes and 13 have been executed.

www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/08/proposition-34-would-end-death-penalty-california-if-approved-november#ixzz23Mfzp0iL

[danceswithdogs]

Another one bites the dust:

"Onion Field" killer Gregory Powell dies in California prison

Gregory Powell, who was convicted of killing a Los Angeles police officer during an infamous kidnapping that inspired Joseph Wambaugh's true-life crime book "The Onion Field," has died in prison at age 79, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Monday.

Powell died late Sunday in a hospice at the California Medical Facility, a men's prison in the Northern California city of Vacaville.

Powell, who spent close to a half century behind bars, was denied parole last year when he told a parole board he was suffering from prostate cancer and wanted to spend his last days outside prison.

"I've done enough time. I'm a different man, and I'm ready to be paroled," he was quoted as telling the parole panel members who were unmoved.

"It was a cold, deliberate crime, and he had a long time to reflect on it," said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Alexis De la Garza, who argued at the hearing for Powell's continued incarceration.

Read more: www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/13/onion-field-killer-gregory-powell-dies-in-california-prison/?test=latestnews#ixzz23UTuYClP