Interesting sentencing news from California

Thanks to How Appealing, I see that the Los Angeles Times has this fine coverage of interesting sentencing developments:

• On the death penalty, this article details that a proposed “moratorium on California executions passed its first test in the Legislature on Tuesday, despite objections from prosecutors and others who said it was unnecessary and would further traumatize relatives of murder victims.”

• On three strikes, this article details that a “new effort to restrict California’s controversial three-strikes law to violent offenders has been launched by strange bedfellows — Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor and a prominent criminal-defense lawyer.”

And, in other notable sentencing news from the Golden State, this San Francisco Chronicle article details that the “state Supreme Court turned down an appeal [Tuesday] by condemned inmate Clarence Ray Allen, who argued that his scheduled execution next week would be cruel and unusual because of his advanced age and health problems.”   (More background on the Allen case and his clemency request can be found in this recent post, “Too old and sick to die?”.)