Drive to Restructure Criminal Justice System Begins

An Orange County crime victims’ group kicked off a signature-gathering campaign Wednesday to qualify a statewide initiative for the November ballot that would lead to sweeping changes in the state’s criminal justice system.

The proposed initiative is expected to draw heavy opposition from criminal defense lawyers and such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Many of the initiative’s provisions would undo what its backers call defense-oriented decisions handed down by the California Supreme Court under former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

“The Bird court took California out of the mainstream, away from the criminal justice system of other states,” said state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim), an initiative supporter. “We are trying to restore that balance between justice for the accused and justice for the victims of crime.”

But Assistant Public Defender Michael P. Giannini, a felony supervisor, calls it “a buffalo stampede to justice.”

“If it is passed,” Giannini predicted, “the rights of a lot of innocent people will be swept up in it.”

Orange County prosecutors who support the proposed initiative disagree.

They say it will only eliminate long trial delays by giving judges more authority to speed up cases and will reduce pretrial procedures.

For example, the proposal would give local judges more authority to force defendants to begin their preliminary hearings more quickly. It would also give prosecutors the right to appeal any delays in such hearings.

“It’s important that we handle these cases in a more expeditious manner,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas, one of the proposed ballot measure’s chief backers.

The proposal would also lead to more grand jury indictments and fewer preliminary hearings in the Municipal Courts, where the prosecution must show that it has sufficient evidence to warrant a trial. Defense lawyers say that eliminating preliminary hearings for those indicted by a grand jury denies defendants the right to confront their accusers.

“We’re jamming our courtrooms with preliminary hearings,” Rackauckas said. “Those hearings also cause a further delay of the trial date.”

The initiative also would:

-Turn over the questioning of potential jurors to judges in most cases. Prosecutors believe that that will sharply reduce the amount of time spent on jury selection.

- Force defense lawyers to turn over to prosecutors information that they plan to present in court. At present, prosecutors must turn over all their police files and other information to the defense, but the defense does not have to reciprocate.

- Require that attorneys who accept court appointments to represent indigent defendants prove that other cases they may be handling will not delay the trial.

-Make court-appointed attorney costs a matter of public record. Currently, judges can seal such records. This is an issue in the case of Randy Steven Kraft, accused in Orange County of 37 murders.

- Broaden prosecutors’ powers to seek the death penalty against non-shooting accomplices in crimes such as robberies or rapes where a victim is murdered. The initiative would also create the new crime of torture, with a penalty of life in prison without parole.

“You peel away a defendant’s rights with every one of these proposals and pretty soon you won’t have anything left,” complained Thomas J. Havlena, an appellate specialist for the Orange County public defender’s office.

“We aren’t destroying defendant’s rights,” replied Deputy Dist. Atty. James P. Cloninger, who also backs the proposal. “We are restoring the law to the way it was before the Bird court.”

The Orange County chapter of the initiative supporters--the Crime Victims’ California Justice Committee--is led by Gary and Collene Campbell, whose son, Scott, was murdered six years ago. His two killers are now in state prison, but the Campbells say the numerous trial delays have been agonizing.

Gary Campbell said 600,000 signatures are needed statewide.

“Our goal is to get 100,000 in Orange County,” he added.