Now, 13 years later, he still waits for his sentence to be carried out, living at taxpayers' expense, the taxes I pay, at San Quentin's death row. And we who loved Danielle, searched for Danielle, wept for her and sat through every moment of the trial also still wait for that sentence to be carried out. We wait still for justice.
Sadly, we are not alone either. While Westerfield has been on death row for 13 years, there are others who have committed terrible crimes against innocent people, including against those who serve and protect us in law enforcement, and against our children, who wait on death row. And their families, like us, wait for justice to be done.
Our legal system, which is supposed to work for the people, has evolved into a frustrating patchwork of legal blockades and stalling tactics that has allowed attorneys for death row inmates to abuse the system to drag out and delay death sentences from being carried out for, in some cases, several decades. Some convicted death row inmates even outlive the family members of their victims. The family members die never having seen justice done to those who changed their lives forever.
Fortunately, the people of California have an opportunity to change that. Thanks to the hard work of a number of law enforcement professionals, public safety officials and elected officials, the California Death Penalty Reform & Savings initiative was submitted to elections officials throughout the state in order to qualify a reform measure for the November ballot.
For Danielle, and for all the other victims and their families who have known the pain and loss that we know every day, we encourage everyone to support this measure to restore justice to the death penalty in California. Our families, and those we've loved and lost, deserve at least that.
Brenda and Damon Van Dam bravely stood up for justice for their daughter.
The actions of defense counsel in that case were appalling. More appalling--that the dishonesty they peddled was not sanctioned by the California bar.