Page 7 - ATD21NOV2015

U.S. NEWS A7
Saturday 21 November 2015

Bid to end California death
penalty may collect signatures

DON THOMPSON to speed up executions already on death row. In this March 7, 2008, file photo, actor Mike Farrell speaks to a
Associated Press by providing more appel- A similar proposal failed group opposed to the death penalty in Omaha, Neb.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) late lawyers and speedier by 4 percentage points in
— Death penalty oppo- appeals. That campaign 2012, but Farrell said the re- Associated Press
nents led by former “M-A- was announced earlier vised proposal has a better
S-H” star Mike Farrell can this month by several pros- chance. director project the mea- projected savings were off-
begin collecting signatures ecutors, police officers and It would require murder- sure could save state and set by a provision sending
for their latest attempt to family members of victims. ers given life sentences to local governments about money to law enforcement
repeal the ultimate penal- More than 900 killers have work in prison, with 60 per- $150 million annually. That agencies, a change Far-
ty, increasing the chances been sentenced to die in cent of their wages going contrasts with the previous rell said could draw more
that California voters will the most populous state to victim restitution. attempt in 2012 where the support.q
be faced with a choice since the death penalty “That does make a differ-
between competing initia- was restored in 1978, but ence to people,” Farrell
tives next year. just 13 have been execut- said in telephone interview.
The secretary of state’s of- ed. No one has been ex- “People are not simply
fice said Friday that back- ecuted in California since getting away with some-
ers have until May 17 to 2006, when a federal judge thing, but in fact are go-
gather nearly 366,000 sig- forced a still-ongoing re- ing to pay for what they’ve
natures if the measure is to view of the state’s lethal done both with their lives
appear on the November injection procedures. and working to offer some
2016 general election bal- The opponents’ measure compensation.” Moreover,
lot. would replace the death the nonpartisan Legislative
Death penalty supporters, penalty with a sentence of Analyst and state finance
meanwhile, are attempt- life in prison with no possi-
ing to gather enough sig- bility of parole. It would ap-
natures for their proposal ply retroactively to those

Professor, wife convicted of
fraud in $700,000 NASA contract

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A said.
university professor and his Prosecutors called their
wife were convicted Friday company, ArkLight, merely
of defrauding NASA by “a front” to seek federal
letting graduate students grants and said Ding, 53,
and researchers do all the hid his role in the company
work on a $700,000 project. from Lehigh.
Lehigh University engineer-
ing professor Yujie Ding Zotova testified that her
and his wife, Yuliya Zotova, social anxieties prevent-
told NASA that their startup ed her from going to the
company would develop lab but that she worked
a cutting-edge sensor used on the project at home.
to track climate change, Her lawyer argued that
The Morning Call of Allen- the research found at the
town reported (http://goo. couple’s home in Sau-
gl/6uMWwh). con Township showed the
Zotova, 41, who has a doc- depth of her involvement.
torate in physics, was sup- The jury deliberated for two
posed to run the project days before convicting the
and oversee the work of couple of six of 10 fraud
graduate students and re- counts.
search fellows in her hus- They each face up to 20
band’s laboratory at Le- years in prison at their sen-
high. The students never tencing, scheduled for
saw her there, prosecutors March 2.q