Victims’ Groups Give Up Efforts to Put Initiative on November Ballot

A coalition of crime victims’ groups whose leadership is primarily in Orange County has quietly dropped its efforts to put a victims’ rights initiative on the November ballot, citing financing difficulties.

Members of the group, called Crime Victims’ California Justice Committee, said they hope to renew the petition drive at the end of the year and try to get the initiative on the ballot in 1989.

The group had already come up with more than 100,000 signatures from a test mailer it had sent statewide. But organizers said that because they could not afford additional mailers, they did not believe they could meet the mid-May deadline to file the needed 600,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

The proposed initiative would force numerous changes in the court system, which prosecutors believe would bring cases to trial more quickly. Defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union generally oppose the measure, claiming it would interfere with many of the civil rights of defendants.

“We simply did not come up with enough money to put on an effective campaign,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas Jr., one of the organizers of the initiative effort. “But that doesn’t mean the public support isn’t there. You don’t always reach your goal the very first try.”

In addition to lack of money, the group also had some bad luck, said state Sen. Edward Royce (R-Anaheim), a coalition supporter.

The group’s filing statement to the secretary of state said that the initiative would mean both constitutional and statutory changes, but due to a printing error, the “statutory” section of the statement was left out.

“Some of us feared that because of that error, those signatures may not have been valid; it was a question whether we would be wasting our money and energy trying to go on,” Royce said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James P. Cloninger, another of the group’s leaders, said he does not think that the printing error would have been a problem.

“But our opponents might have made an issue of it and tied us up in litigation,” Cloninger said. “Because of that possibility, we decided it was best to regroup and start over.”

The original plan, Rackauckas said, was to finance the effort through donations expected to come in from the first test mailer.

But not enough came in, Rackauckas said.

The new effort, he said, would probably rely more on a statewide volunteer effort, with most of the petition signatures gathered at shopping malls or door-to-door. Also, the group plans to collect signatures by placing volunteers at polling places during the general election Nov. 8.

“We know the support is there from the test mailer we did,” Rackauckas said. “I’m not discouraged. You don’t quit just because you stumble once.”

Rackauckas cited the successful effort last year to oust state California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two of her colleagues.

Rackauckas had participated in two earlier drives to remove Bird from the court. Both failed, but he said he believes those drives helped garner the public opposition to Bird that was instrumental in her downfall. Many of the people involved in the victims’ rights initiative campaign were also part of the anti-Bird forces.

The broadly written initiative would force sweeping changes in the way juries are selected and the way publicly financed defense attorneys are assigned to criminal cases. It would also likely reduce the number of court appearances needed before a case reaches trial.

Supported by Prosecutors

The initiative has been supported by prosecutors in every county in California and scores of law enforcement agencies.

Among the leaders of the state victims’ coalition are Collene and Gary Campbell of San Juan Capistrano. The Campbells endured two trials that involved repeated delays before the killers of their son, Scott, were convicted. Collene Campbell is a sister of racing promoter Mickey Thompson, who, along with his wife, Trudy, was murdered last month outside their home in the Los Angeles County city of Bradbury.

“I was against pulling out,” Collene Campbell said. “We’re not done by a long shot. We’re going to work hard to get this on the ballot next year. And we’re going to win too.”