BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
                             Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          Bill No:    SB 629        Hearing Date:    May 12, 2015    
          
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Author:    |Mitchell                                             |
          |-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
          |Version:   |April 6, 2015                                        |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Urgency:   |No                     |Fiscal:    |No               |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Consultant:|LT                                                   |
          |           |                                                     |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 


            Subject:  Crimes:  Taking Person From Lawful Custody of Peace  
 
                                       Officer



          HISTORY

          Source:   Mayor Kevin Johnson, Sacramento

          Prior Legislation:None

          Support:  Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs;  
                    Association of Deputy District Attorneys; California  
                    State Conference of the National Association for the  
                    Advancement of Colored People; California Narcotic  
                    Officers Association; Los Angeles Police Protective  
                    League; Riverside Sheriffs Association; Los Angeles  
                    Probation Officers Union; AFSCME Local 685

          Opposition:            None known

                     
          PURPOSE

          The purpose of this bill is to eliminate the term 'lynching'  
          from the Penal Code.

          Existing law provides that "the taking by means of a riot of any  








          SB 629  (Mitchell )                                       PageB  
          of?
          
          person from the lawful custody of any peace officer is a  
          lynching." (Penal Code § 405a.) 

          Existing law provides that "every person who participates in any  
          lynching is punishable by imprisonment, as specified, for two,  
          three, or four years." (Penal Code § 405b.)

          This bill would amend this section to read, "A person who  
          participates in the taking by means of a riot of another person  
          from the lawful custody of a peace officer is guilty of a  
          felony, punishable by imprisonment, as specified, for two,  
          three, or four years." 

                    RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION

          For the past eight years, this Committee has scrutinized  
          legislation referred to its jurisdiction for any potential  
          impact on prison overcrowding.  Mindful of the United States  
          Supreme Court ruling and federal court orders relating to the  
          state's ability to provide a constitutional level of health care  
          to its inmate population and the related issue of prison  
          overcrowding, this Committee has applied its "ROCA" policy as a  
          content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that  
          the Legislature does not erode progress in reducing prison  
          overcrowding.   

          On February 10, 2014, the federal court ordered California to  
          reduce its in-state adult institution population to 137.5% of  
          design capacity by February 28, 2016, as follows:   

                 143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
                 141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
                 137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016. 

          In February of this year the administration reported that as "of  
          February 11, 2015, 112,993 inmates were housed in the State's 34  
          adult institutions, which amounts to 136.6% of design bed  
          capacity, and 8,828 inmates were housed in out-of-state  
          facilities.  This current population is now below the  
          court-ordered reduction to 137.5% of design bed capacity."(  
          Defendants' February 2015 Status Report In Response To February  
          10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge Court, Coleman  
          v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).










          SB 629  (Mitchell )                                       PageC  
          of?
          
          While significant gains have been made in reducing the prison  
          population, the state now must stabilize these advances and  
          demonstrate to the federal court that California has in place  
          the "durable solution" to prison overcrowding "consistently  
          demanded" by the court.  (Opinion Re: Order Granting in Part and  
          Denying in Part Defendants' Request For Extension of December  
          31, 2013 Deadline, NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC), 3-Judge Court,  
          Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (2-10-14).  The Committee's  
          consideration of bills that may impact the prison population  
          therefore will be informed by the following questions:

              Whether a proposal erodes a measure which has contributed  
               to reducing the prison population;
              Whether a proposal addresses a major area of public safety  
               or criminal activity for which there is no other  
               reasonable, appropriate remedy;
              Whether a proposal addresses a crime which is directly  
               dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there  
               is no other reasonably appropriate sanction; 
              Whether a proposal corrects a constitutional problem or  
               legislative drafting error; and
              Whether a proposal proposes penalties which are  
               proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other  
               reasonably appropriate remedy.


          COMMENTS

          1.  Stated Need for This Bill

          The author states:

               SB 629 amends CA Penal Code § 405 (a) & (b) to  
               eliminate the reference to 'lynching' as used to  
               define the taking by means of a riot of any person  
               from the lawful custody of a peace officer.  It does  
               not reduce the penalties associated with this act.   
               The term "lynching" carries with it cultural  
               significance and its current usage in code is contrary  
               to what the vast majority of people understand the  
               crime of lynching to entail.  Lynching is defined in  
               all dictionaries searched by the author's office as  
               the practice of killing a person or people by  
               extrajudicial mob action. 









          SB 629  (Mitchell )                                       PageD  
          of?
          



          2.  What This Bill Would Do

          As noted in the author's statement, the term 'lynching' is  
          understood as meaning an extrajudicial hanging. This bill would  
          eliminate any confusion caused by the conflict between the  
          statutory meaning, the taking of a person from the lawful  
          custody of a peace officer by means of a riot, and the commonly  
          accepted meaning of the term.  This bill would not change the  
          penalty.

          3.  Background

          According to History of Lynching in the United States: 


               The lynching era encompasses roughly the five decades  
               between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of  
               the Great Depression.  During these years we may  
               estimate that there were 2,018 separate incidents of  
               lynching in which at least 2,462 African-American men,  
               women and children met their deaths in the grasp of  
               southern mobs, comprised mostly of whites.  Although  
               lynchings and mob killings occurred before 1880,  
               notably during early Reconstruction when blacks were  
               enfranchised, radical racism and mob violence peaked  
               during the 1890s in a surge of terrorism that did not  
               dissipate until well into the twentieth century (17).


               In addition to the punishment of specific criminal  
               offenders, lynching in the American South had three  
               entwined functions:


                           To maintain social order over the black  
                    population through terrorism;

                           To suppress of eliminate black  
                    competitors for economic, political, or social  
                    rewards; and










          SB 629  (Mitchell )                                       PageE  
          of?
          

                           To stabilize the white class structure  
                    and preserve the privileged status of the white  
                    aristocracy (18-19).


               Lethal mob violence for seemingly minor infractions of  
               the caste codes of behavior was more fundamental for  
               maintaining terroristic social control than punishment  
               for what would seem to be more serious violations of  
               the criminal codes (19).<1>



                                        --END -





          























          ---------------------------
          <1> http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/USLynch.html