Stolen justice: Prison break bill puts victims’ rights on death row
There aren’t words to describe the tragic murder of a family member. There is no true solace to be found again once a child, sibling, or parent is taken violently from this world. But there is justice that can be served. There can be some semblance of peace in knowing those responsible are brought to account, never to do evil again. There can be closure.
California Democrat lawmakers, however, now seek to obliterate that one small consolation with their recently resurrected Senate Bill 94. The bill, abandoned last year in the face of outcry and heartbreak from victims’ rights groups and the public, would allow the worst murderers known to return to the streets and escape the remainder of their life sentences.
The convicted felons who would benefit from SB 94 are not just “mere murderers.” Theirs are not crimes of passion, lapses in judgment, breaks in sanity, or even plain-old unchecked anger or jealousy. No, theirs are the most heinous killings – racial slayings, murder for hire, torture, and worse – committed intentionally and with the kind of malice most of us will never even witness or imagine, much less possess.
That is unless, God forbid, we become victims of the few real-life monsters that walk among the rest of us.
Such was the case for Vanetta Perdue who, as a young child, was at home with her mother and siblings when one such murderer broke in and lit her mom on fire, leaving the family to burn in the flames of evil he had created. He was her father. She barely escaped alive.
“My mother pleaded for her life and ours. Murderers like Samuel Windham earned life without parole. Senate Bill 94 denies justice to my mother and peace to my family,” said Perdue at a press conference opposing the bill last year.
Victims’ families like Perdue and others are adamant that we must keep the cruelest killers in history in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Their voices should be the top priority. The victims and their families fought, often for many years, to receive justice. For them, seeing their perpetrator sentenced to life without parole was the light at the end of the tunnel, it was the end of a dark period, and it was supposed to mean forever.
Paying no mind to the will of the people or the well-being of victims and their families, Democrat lawmakers have been rolling back protections for our public safety for years now. Letting criminals out from behind bars has been their priority, not the safety of the public—as is their charge. These so-called “progressive” politicians have ignored the public’s outcry and even fought against the people who are demanding tougher punishment for dangerous criminals.
California Democratic Party leaders have rolled back protections against drug dealers who bring dangerous drugs to our communities, all but eliminated punishment for theft, and watered down penalties for nearly every crime.
These Democrat politicians claim they’ve recently realized we need real reforms to keep us safe. They’ve passed bills they say will help solve the public safety problems we face. Holding kitschy photo-ops inside the Home Depot replete with orange bucket backdrops and proclaiming they’re attacking crime and getting tough on it, now, finally.
Far too little and far too late, even if it were true. Speaking out of both sides of their mouths, they assumed we wouldn’t notice that just three days before their empty public safety statement, they had quietly revived SB 94.
It is an oxymoron for Democrat lawmakers and the governor to claim that they are cracking down on crime, yet at the same time, releasing these convicted felons out on the streets. We cannot protect victims and their families yet release their victimizers at the same time. They cannot stand for the people and for the predators at the same time.
It’s time to pick a side and we’ll be fighting tooth and nail for law-abiding Californians until we preserve justice for the just and damnation for the convicted. Know that California Republican lawmakers stand with victims and will continue to be the voice for victims and their families.
Brian W. Jones represents California 40th Senate District and James Gallagher represents California 3rd Assembly District.