Free Republic

A Sacramento federal judge has struck down as unconstitutional the part of California's so-called Victims' Bill of Rights that governs parole revocation. The law, enacted by voter approval of a 2008 ballot initiative known as Proposition 9, was a sweeping amendment to the state constitution, conferring a long list of entitlements on crime victims. The sections dealing with parole revocation were made part of the state's Penal Code. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled Tuesday that those sections fall short of providing the minimum due process guaranteed by the Constitution and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Morrissey v. Brewer...

An appellate court on Monday struck down a Sacramento federal judge's injunction prohibiting enforcement of parts of a state law governing California's parole system. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled in February that life-term prisoners were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that those sections of the so-called Victims' Bill of Rights Act that reduce availability and frequency of parole hearings violate the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause bars laws that retroactively increase punishment after the commission of a crime. But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A federal judge is blocking a portion of a crime victims' rights measure approved by California voters in November. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento says a federal injunction that had been agreed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration trumps the section of Proposition 9 that limits legal rights for parole violators.

The opinion issued Sept. 14, 2005 may be accessed here.