San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, a Redlands native, favors reinstituting executions in California and he issued a statement saying so on Friday.
"Despite the recent 1st District Court of Appeals ruling that states the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made several errors when adopting new lethal injection rules, I commend Governor Brown on his decision to continue developing proposed regulations for a single-drug protocol," Ramos said.
"Earlier this month, I met with Governor Brown to discuss this serious issue. I respectfully asked him to honor the voters' mandate by reinstituting executions in California and to consider not only the victims of these violent murderers but their surviving family members who continue to suffer and cry out for justice," Ramos said.
"As I have said several times before, under the current system, it takes far too long for convicted criminals to move through the justice system. We need to fix this flaw, which is why I felt that it was important to see the Governor face to face," Ramos said.
"Even now as I write, I can’t help but think of next week which marks the 30-year anniversary of four gruesome murders committed by one of San Bernardino County's most notorious killers - Kevin Cooper - who still remains on Death Row. He has appealed 10 times each to the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. It's time that we fix the current system and carry out what the voters approved years ago."
The last time California executed an inmate was Jan. 17, 2006, when convicted murderer Clarence Ray Allen was killed by lethal injection in the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison.
In November 2012, California voters rejected Proposition 34, a measure to repeal California's death penalty, by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.
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