Death Penalty Backers Celebrate California Supreme Court Decision

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — He's one of the authors of Proposition 66, the voter-approved measure to speed up executions in California, and Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation is celebrating a new victory.

"We will be seeing a resumption of execution in less than a year," he said.

The California Supreme Court upheld the law he wrote, which was on hold while considering a challenge attempting to overturn it. It was filed by the same opponents behind the competing measure to repeal death penalty.

We interviewed Ron Briggs during his hard fought campaign.

"Eliminate the death penalty… replace it with life without the possibility of parole...throw them in prison for rest of life...throw away the key," said Briggs.

But 51 percent of California voters voted to "mend, not end the death penalty," limiting repetitive appeals that keep inmates on death row for decades.

"We can bring things down from 25 down to 10," said Scheidegger

Ten years is how long it'll take for death row inmate to be executed.

But Scheidegger says there are about 20 inmates who have already exhausted their appeals, making them ready for executions in less than a year.

"It's immoral. The state should not be killing people," said state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco).

Weiner says executions may soon resume, but so will the fight to get rid of capital punishment in California.

"I think we will eventually repeal the death penalty. We came very close last year, and we have to keep trying," he said.