Twice in the 1970s the California Supreme Court abolished capital punishment, once in 1972 and again in 1976. As a result, 111 murderers in 1972 and 68 more in 1976 were then off death row. All became eligible for parole.

Included in the 111 in 1972 were the likes of assassin Sirhan Sirhan, “Onion Field Murderer” Gregory Powell, and the “Manson Family” wholesale killers. We successfully petitioned to have the parole dates for Sirhan, Powell and the Manson family rescinded.

Garber and Mancino at 1984 LA press conference

Following each abolition both the legislature and voters restored the death penalty, voters at the time supporting capital punishment by a huge 83.6%. Our founder and director, Dr. Howard Garber, was the Southern California coordinator for the Prop. 17 ballot initiative in November 1972.

However, in 1977 California Governor Jerry Brown appointed his friend Rose Bird, a defense-oriented attorney without a single hour’s worth of experience on the bench to be the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court.

Following this appointment Bird went on to vote to overturn 61 out of 61 death penalty cases that came before her court. This judicial obstruction of justice led to Dr. Garber, myself, current Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, and two others to form Californians for a Responsible Supreme Court.

Our objective was to remove Rose Bird from the court through a recall initiative. Although it took us five years, we finally succeeded in generating enough publicity and support to oust Bird and her two colleagues on the Court in November, 1986.

In spite of our success California did not execute anyone until April of 1992 when Robert Alton Harris was put to death at San Quentin. And since 1963 California has only executed 14 of the 704 inmates currently on death row while we’ve seen more than 108,000 innocent Californians slaughtered in the same period.

With the advent of DNA it is now possible to be absolutely accurate in determining guilt where DNA evidence is discovered and secured. And with California replacing execution by gas with lethal injection there should not be any argument that the murderer suffers during his demise.

However, death penalty opponents will create any and all smokescreens they can in order to obstruct justice. This was evidenced in a January 2008 ACRU TV program in which a member of Amnesty International admitted they were opposed to execution "in all circumstances".

There was a hearing held in Sacramento in June 2009 to determine whether lethal injection can once again be implemented in California under new procedures following the moratorium imposed by Bill Clinton appointee, federal District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel.

When Dr. Garber and I testified at this hearing we pointed out that when one undergoes so much as a tonsillectomy the individual doesn’t feel a thing, and that those, in and out of government, who will continue to sustain and protect these murderers have misplaced compassion. We also reminded the committee, the media and other witnesses that murderers kill again in prison, both prison officials and other inmates alike, they escape and kill again, as did Ted Bundy, and can be released by permissive governors who empty their death rows via clemency, as did governors Toney Anaya of New Mexico and George Ryan of Illinois. And there are those who escape conviction due to a less than unanimous jury, and yet may still be guilty.

Our position is that capital punishment serves one main purpose: to permanently separate those known dangerous murderers from the rest of us. And lethal injection is the most humane vehicle in which to execute. We are not interested in brutalizing these menaces any more than we would a rabid dog. But we must be able to guarantee that society be protected from one who has already proven by his performance that he is deadly and forever suspect. Execution is the only assurance available to provide this guarantee.

ACRU has a list of more than 60 condemned murderers who were released from U.S. prisons who killed again once freed, including twice condemned California murderer Robert Massey.

As of January 21, 2010, the state has until May 1 to adopt the revisions to lethal injection or be forced to start over with the revison process due to procedural law.

ACRU intends to submit additional testimony/evidence in support of lethal injection to the state. We have documented evidence from numerous sources that supports our claim that when one is anesthetized that person is completely pain-free.

Special Note: ACRU officials are in the process of creating a Political Action Committee (PAC) for the purpose of campaigning against the election of Jerry Brown as California's governor once again. His legacy left us with more than 1,200 judicial appointments, many of which led to judges legislating from the bench. His appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court was to secure his agenda. We encourage all penalty proponents to contact their state legislators in California to demand that our death penalty law be implemented, and to support our campaign against Brown.