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Proposition 66 was a
California ballot proposition California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
on the November 8, 2016, ballot to change procedures governing California state court challenges to
capital punishment in California Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California due to a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting i ...
, designate superior court for initial petitions, limit successive petitions, require appointed attorneys who take noncapital appeals to accept death penalty appeals, and exempt prison officials from existing regulation process for developing execution methods. The intention of Proposition 66 was to speed up the process of capital trials and executions. Proposition 66 was approved by voters in the November general election, with 51.1% voting to speed up executions. Proposition 62, which would have abolished the death penalty in California, was rejected by voters in the same election, with 53.1% voting against it. If voters had passed both Proposition 62 and Proposition 66, then the measure with the most "Yes" votes would have taken effect. The measure was opposed by the editorial boards of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'', and ''
The Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...
''.


State supreme court ruling

After Prop 66 passed, former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp, along with Ron Briggs (whose father John Briggs was the sponsor of Prop 7 in 1978, which expanded
capital punishment in California Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California due to a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting i ...
), challenged the measure in court. On December 20, 2016, the
California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
stopped Prop 66 from going into effect pending resolution of the legal challenge. The measure constitutionality was upheld 5–2 on August 24, 2017, though the state supreme court held that one provision requiring it to decide direct appeals of capital cases within five years was directive rather than mandatory. The court ordered that Prop 66 take effect after this decision becomes final.


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No on 66
2016 California ballot propositions Capital punishment in California Capital punishment referendums Capital punishment ballot measures in the United States {{California-poli-stub