Free Republic

A Sacramento-based Third District Court of Appeals has overturned the 2017 conviction of five men who were caught with marijuana in their prison cells, after California passed Proposition 64 legalizing recreational use of the drug. But that doesn’t mean inmates can light up joints while behind bars.

Though his fate will hang in the balance on Election Day, Corvain Cooper won’t get to cast a ballot. The 37-year-old will be in a cell in central California’s Atwater federal prison, where he’s serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for convictions involving marijuana. “I was placed in a federal prison at its highest level, with felons who all committed acts of violence,” the Los Angeles native said in a series of monitored emails sent from prison. “Yet they all have release dates.” Soon, Cooper could too. Though most of the attention surrounding Proposition 64 centers on...

...Voters will consider 163 initiatives and referendums in 34 states.... Gay Marriage: This is the social issue du jour, and measures to ban it will appear on ballots in 11 states, including the battlegrounds of Michigan and Ohio. Proponents have their work cut out; ballot measures defending traditional marriage have never lost and tend to be approved by wide margins.... [W]hat's important is that the decision is left to the electorate and their representatives, not dictated from the bench by activist judges.... Tort Reform: The medical liability reform initiatives on the ballot in no fewer that four states -- Wyoming,...

Poll: Voters favor softening of '3 strikes' law By Howard Mintz Mercury News With just weeks to go before the election, California voters remain strongly in favor of a ballot measure that would soften the state's tough "three strikes, you're out" law, according to Field Poll results to be released today. A survey of voters earlier this month found 65 percent support Proposition 66, which would require that a defendant be convicted of a serious or violent felony to qualify for a "three strikes" sentence of 25 years to life. Right now, California is the only state that allows a...