the California Supreme Court called for a constitutional amendment...

the California Supreme Court called for a constitutional amendment to ease the backlog in the state's death penalty system, which takes an average of 17 years to execute a condemned convict -- twice the national average.
Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who announced the proposal, said he wanted the Legislature to put the amendment on the November 2008 ballot.
Under the current system, death sentences are automatically appealed to the California Supreme Court.
The proposal would allow many cases to be handled by 1 of the state's 6 appeals courts, with the high court stepping in when a significant legal issue needs resolution or justices find another reason to review it.
The automatic death sentence appeals makes up about 20 percent of the court's caseload, Chief Justice Ronald M. George said.
The average wait for execution in the state is now 17.5 years. The backlog is likely to grow, considering the trend: 30 people have been on death row for more than 25 years, 119 for more than 20 years and 408 for more than a decade.
California's death row, with 666 inmates, is the nation's largest. While 58 death row inmates have died of old age, suicide, or prison violence in the last 30 years, 13 have been executed since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1978.
A legal challenge to the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection has put all California executions on hold for the last 18 months.
A constitutional amendment is required to change the current appeals process.
George said he hopes to find a legislator who will sponsor the measure, which would then require two-thirds of lawmakers to approve it. A majority of voters also would need to approve the change.