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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

California: Death penalty supporters seek to speed up executions

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The Adjustment Center at San Quentin Prison, California
The Adjustment Center at San Quentin Prison, California.
Death penalty supporters got the state’s go-ahead Thursday to collect signatures for a November 2016 ballot measure aimed at speeding up executions, raising the prospect that voters will be asked to choose between toughening California’s death penalty law and repealing it.

The new initiative would require the state Supreme Court to rule on capital cases within five years. It would also limit death penalty appeals, set strict deadlines for filing appeals and seek to expand the pool of death penalty lawyers. Any attorney who now accepts court appointments to represent impoverished defendants in criminal cases would also have to take on capital cases, regardless of experience.

Another provision would eliminate the currently required public comment period before the state can approve a new single-drug execution method, which officials have proposed to replace the current three-drug executions.

Supporters of the measure say it would reduce by at least half the period, typically 25 years or more, needed to resolve death penalty appeals in California. Opponents disagree, noting that the initiative would not add funding for death penalty lawyers or court staff.

A rival initiative to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole was cleared for circulation last month. A similar repeal measure was defeated by four percentage points in November 2012.

Both initiatives need 365,880 signatures of registered voters in 180 days to qualify for the ballot. Sponsors of the new initiative have raised more than $1 million so far and expect to collect the needed signatures, said Charles Bell, a lawyer for the campaign.

California, which has nearly 750 condemned prisoners, conducted its last execution in January 2006, before a federal judge ruled that defects in lethal injection procedures and staff training created an unacceptable risk of a botched and agonizing execution.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko, December 24, 2015

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Location: California, USA
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