The Final Brown Bills
A Feature Article by Gaurav Varma
Governor Jerry Brown has served four (nonconsecutive) terms as California’s governor, and signed about 20,000 bills into law. By September 30, 2018, he has added 183 more to this total. This day was the deadline for Brown to sign any bills the legislature had passed during his last session as governor. Some of the most important of these bills pertained to criminal justice and will influence California’s criminal justice system long after Governor Brown retires.
One of these new laws is AB-748. This policy mandates police to release body camera footage within forty-five days of a police shooting. This is a major win for advocates of police transparency. In many cases, such as those of Laquan McDonald in Chicago and Demouria Hogg in Oakland, footage of shootings has been withheld from the public for years. Taxpayers are the ones funding these cameras and the whole point of their implementation was to check the government’s, especially the police’s, power. Democracy only functions if voters have an informed view of the actions their government is taking. Body cameras directly affect how voters see their police departments and almost certainly would affect who they vote to be their police chiefs. Transparency will now be the standard for police departments in California, and hopefully other states will follow suit. In another attempt at increasing police transparency, Governor Brown signed SB-1421, allowing the public to view police records pertaining to cases involving use-of-force and sexual assault/misconduct..
Brown also signed SB-1437, which significantly reels back the felony murder rule in California. The felony murder rule holds that anyone involved with certain felonies that ended in a death could be held accountable for the death even if he or she was not directly responsible. This policy was often used to lock people up for life who intended to participate in nonviolent crimes such as robbery, but due to plans going awry, became accomplices in an unintentional murder.
Lastly, in his final days in office, Governor Brown reformed how minors are viewed under the law. Children under the age of 12 will no longer be prosecuted for any crimes other than murder or sexual assault because of SB-439. And, due to SB-1391, fourteen- and fifteen year-olds can no longer be tried as adults. The science is clear: children’s brains are not developed enough to fully and rationally process right and wrong. These laws will give a second chance to children who break the law; it will allow them to learn from their mistakes and become productive members of society, instead of committing them to a life of crime or incarceration.
State governments are more important than ever. In an age of increasing partisanship and the subsequent gridlock caused by it on the federal level, the vast majority of impactful legislation is passed by states. Governor Jerry Brown has recognized this throughout his career, and by passing these 183 new laws he has ensured that, even as he leaves politics, California will continue to lead the lead the way in its pursuit of progress.
[Sources: www.lamag.com, www.nytimes.com]