http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2009/07/21/man-convicted-of-killing-don-bolles-dies-in-prison/ Investigating the Killing of a Journalist Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:43:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2009/07/21/man-convicted-of-killing-don-bolles-dies-in-prison/comment-page-1/#comment-25148 Sheldon L. McCormick Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:48:28 +0000 http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/?p=2780#comment-25148 The 1978 Special Circumstance Murder Statute, enacted by the Calfornia Legislature three years after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, specifies that specific categories of murder (California State Penal Code Section 187), upon conviction, be punished by the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole. These include slaying law enforcement officer, firefighters, using explosives and destructive devices like a hand grenade, political officials, using torture, preventing or retaliating against witnesses for testifying in court and several other categories. The murder of journalists like Oakland reporter Chauncey Bailey and Arizona Republic newspaperman Don Bolles, must be added to that specific list. Journalists risk life and limb to provide vital information to readers , listeners and viewers. The news, good and bad, must be covered in order to benefit a free society. Violence aginst the news media is as much an attack on America's liberty as the 911 assaults against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Violence against the news media, as seen one time too many in locales like Mexico and the Middle East, should never be tolerated in America. Those who do engage in such violent efforts against journalists must be punished with the most severe sentence the courts can administer under the law. The murder of news media practictioners is a grievious blow against freedom of speech and the press, one of the sacred tenants of the United States Constitution. The 1978 Special Circumstance Murder Statute, enacted by the Calfornia Legislature three years after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, specifies that specific categories of murder (California State Penal Code Section 187), upon conviction, be punished by the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole. These include slaying law enforcement officer, firefighters, using explosives and destructive devices like a hand grenade, political officials, using torture, preventing or retaliating against witnesses for testifying in court and several other categories. The murder of journalists like Oakland reporter Chauncey Bailey and Arizona Republic newspaperman Don Bolles, must be added to that specific list. Journalists risk life and limb to provide vital information to readers , listeners and viewers. The news, good and bad, must be covered in order to benefit a free society. Violence aginst the news media is as much an attack on America’s liberty as the 911 assaults against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Violence against the news media, as seen one time too many in locales like Mexico and the Middle East, should never be tolerated in America. Those who do engage in such violent efforts against journalists must be punished with the most severe sentence the courts can administer under the law. The murder of news media practictioners is a grievious blow against freedom of speech and the press, one of the sacred tenants of the United States Constitution.

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