Store Research
Proposition 115
Adopted June 5, 1990
Some bill research does not include the Governor's file because at the time we researched the bill, the sitting Governor had not released his chaptered bill file. If the Governor's file is not included with this particular research, please contact our office (1-530-666-1917 or quote@legintent.com) and we will be happy to provide this file at no charge if it is available. Please Note: Governor files did not exist prior to 1943.
Proposition 115, an initiative measure, was placed before the electorate of California on June 5, 1990, and approved by 57% of the voters. (See Exhibit A, #2)
The official title and summary as set forth in the California Ballot Pamphlet read as follows:
CRIMINAL LAW. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. Amends state Constitution regarding criminal and juvenile cases: affords accused no greater constitutional rights than federal Constitution affords; prohibits post-indictment preliminary hearings; establishes People’s right to due process and speedy. public [sic] trials; provides reciprocal discovery; allows hearsay in preliminary hearings. Makes statutory changes, including: expands first degree murder definition; increases penalty for specified murders; expands special circumstance murders subject to capital punishment; increases penalty for minors convicted of first degree murder to life imprisonment without parole; permits probable cause finding based on hearsay; requires court to conduct jury examination.
(See Exhibit A, #1, page 32)
Also contained in this Pamphlet were the arguments in support of the proposition which were signed by then U.S. Senator Pete Wilson, the California District Attorney’s Association, Women Prosecutors of California, representatives of Memory of Victims Everywhere (M.O.V.E.), and the California Medical Association. (See Exhibit A, #1, pages 34) Arguments against the measure came from the California Abortion Rights Action League, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the San Francisco Bar Association, the L.A. County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), the California National Women’s Political Caucus, and Shirley Hufstedler. (Id. at, pages 34 and 35)