(1) Existing law provides for the compensation of victims and derivative victims of specified types of crimes by the California Victim Compensation Board from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for specified losses suffered as a result of those crimes. Existing law defines various terms for purposes of these provisions. This bill would define "law enforcement officer" consistently with specified provisions. The bill would define "victim services provider" to mean an individual, whether paid or serving as a volunteer, who provides services to victims under the supervision of either an agency or organization that has a documented record of providing services to victims, or a law enforcement or prosecution agency. (2) Existing law requires that a person be ineligible for compensation under specified conditions, including, among other things, if the board determines that denial of the claim for compensation is appropriate because of the nature of the victim's involvement in the events leading to the crime or the involvement of the person whose injury or death gives rise to the application. Existing law requires the board to deny an application if it finds that the victim failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency in the apprehension and conviction of a criminal committing the crime. This bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the victim's or other applicant's involvement in the crime, except as specified, or the victim's failure to cooperate. The bill would require the board, solely for the purposes of eligibility for compensation, to accept as sufficient evidence forms of documentation, as described, that describe or demonstrate a person suffered serious bodily injury or death as a result of a law enforcement officer's use of force. The bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's death as a result of a crime, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the deceased victim's involvement in the crime or the victim's or derivative victim's failure to cooperate, except as provided. By expanding the types of crime for which compensation can be paid from a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing law requires that the California Victim Compensation Board be subrogated to the rights of the recipient to the extent of any compensation granted by the board. This bill would specify that the above-described subrogation of the board applies to compensation by the board for a claim based on serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, as specified.
Sponsored bills
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Under the act, the state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by no later than December 31, 2030. Under the act, a violation of a rule, regulation, order, emission limitation, emission reduction measure, or other measure adopted by the state board under the act is a crime. This bill instead would require the state board to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 55% below the 1990 level by no later than December 31, 2030. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Constitution prohibits slavery. The California Constitution also prohibits involuntary servitude except as punishment to a crime. This measure would define slavery to include involuntary servitude and forced labor compelled by the use or threat of physical or legal coercion. The measure would clarify that the provisions are not intended to have any effect on voluntary work programs in corrections settings.
Existing law, the California Values Act, prohibits a California law enforcement agency from providing a person's release date, or responding to a request for notification of a release date, unless that information is available to the public, and prohibits the transfer of an individual to immigration authorities, as specified, unless the person has been convicted of specified crimes or arrested for a serious or violent felony. This bill would prohibit any state or local agency from arresting or assisting with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose, except as specified. The bill would additionally prohibit state or local agencies or courts from using immigration status as a factor to deny or to recommend denial of probation or participation in any diversion, rehabilitation, mental health program, or placement in a credit-earning program or class, or to determine custodial classification level, to deny mandatory supervision, or to lengthen the portion of supervision served in custody. The bill would authorize a person to bring an action for equitable or declaratory relief in a court of competent jurisdiction against a state or local agency or state or local official that violates these provisions, and would make those agencies or officials liable for actual and general damages and reasonable attorney's fees. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement and maintain procedures to identify inmates serving terms in state prison who are undocumented felons subject to deportation. Existing law requires the department to annually report to the Legislature the number of persons identified as undocumented aliens, as specified. This bill would repeal those provisions. Existing law requires all basic information stored in state or local criminal offender record information systems to be recorded in the form of specified standard data elements, including, among other things, place of birth. This bill would no longer require that information to include place of birth.
Existing law, the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) , governs collective bargaining between the state and recognized state public employee organizations. Existing law excludes certain employees from coverage under the Dills Act, including, among others, managerial employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, as defined. Existing law creates the Public Employment Relations Board and authorizes it, among other things, to determine appropriate state employee bargaining units, as specified. This bill would enact the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act, to provide employees of the Legislature the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The bill would prescribe rights, duties, and prohibitions in this context that parallel those in the Dills Act. The bill would prohibit the Public Employment Relations Board from including employees of the Legislature in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than those of the Legislature. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to its provisions. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the provisions of the Legislature Employer-Employee Relations Act are severable. The bill would become operative on July 1, 2024. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This measure would proclaim December 8, 2022, as Latina Equal Pay Day in California, in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all.
(1) Existing law defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought. Existing law classifies a murder as murder in the first degree if it is willful, deliberate, and premeditated, is committed by specified means including poison, explosive, or torture, or if it is committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate specified felonies, including robbery, carjacking, and rape. Existing law holds a person, who is not the actual killer, criminally liable for murder in the first degree if that person either, with intent to kill, aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces, solicits, requests or assists the actual killer in the commission of the murder, or is a major participant in the underlying felony and acts with reckless indifference to human life. Under existing law, murder in the first degree is punishable by death, imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole, or imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life. Existing law, added by Proposition 115 of the June 5, 1990, statewide primary election, provides that a person, not the actual killer, who is found guilty of first degree murder, and who, with reckless indifference to human life and as a major participant in certain specified violent felonies, aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, solicited, requested, or assisted in the commission of that felony, shall be punished by death or imprisonment in the state prison without the possibility of parole. Existing law provides for amendment of these provisions by a23 vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would repeal the aforementioned provision requiring punishment by death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole for a person convicted of murder in the first degree who is not the actual killer, but acted with reckless indifference for human life as a major participant in certain specified violent felonies. (2) Existing law provides for various specified special circumstances, including the murder of a peace officer, firefighter, or witness, which, if found true as specified, require a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree to be sentenced to death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. Existing law, added by Proposition 115 of the June 5, 1990, statewide primary election, prohibits a judge from striking or dismissing any special circumstance which is admitted by plea or found true by a jury or court, as specified. Existing law provides for amendment of these provisions by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature. This bill would repeal the provision prohibiting a judge from striking a special circumstance. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of greenhouse gases the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. This bill would require the state board, at least once every 3 years, to conduct a review, as provided, of the market-based compliance mechanisms to, among other things, evaluate and address concerns related to allowance overallocation and offset credit eligibility. The bill would require the state board, in conducting the review, to consult with the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee and the environmental justice advisory committee. The bill would require the first review to begin by a certain date. The bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, to develop and publish allowance banking metrics, as defined, concurrently with the first review and would require the review to be based on observed and expected outcomes resulting from the application of allowance banking metrics.
Existing law grants state employees certain health, dental, and vision benefits, and authorizes other public agencies, including the Legislature, to elect to contract for these benefits. Existing law, which is applicable to certain state employees, requires the state employer, upon the death of an employee while in state service, to continue to pay employer contributions for health, dental, and vision benefits for a period not to exceed 120 days, as specified. Existing law also requires in this context that the state employer provide certain information and notifications to surviving spouses and other eligible family members. This bill would require the Legislature, upon the death of a legislative employee while in service, to continue to pay employer contributions for health benefits for a period not to exceed 120 days, as specified, to the extent the benefits have been elected. The bill would specify, for these purposes, that the employer is the Senate or the Assembly, as may be applicable, and would identify the entities responsible for providing certain advisements to surviving spouses and other eligible family members.
Existing law categorizes certain drugs and other substances as controlled substances and prohibits various actions related to those substances, including their manufacture, transportation, sale, possession, and ingestion. Existing law creates a Research Advisory Panel, as specified, to conduct hearings on, and in other ways study, research projects concerning cannabis or hallucinogenic drugs. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to convene a working group, as specified, to research and make recommendations to the Legislature regarding, among other things, the regulation and use of psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) , ibogaine, mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) , and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) .