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California Voters Reject Repealing The Death Penalty

SACRAMENTO (CBS / AP) – California voters have rejected a measure to repeal the death penalty.

The vote Tuesday followed a contentious campaign between opposing measures that called for repealing capital punishment and replacing it with life in prison without parole or speeding it up so condemned murderers are actually executed.

The speed-up proposition had yet to be decided early Wednesday.

Supporters of both measures agreed the current system is broken. More than 900 convicted killers have been sent to death row since 1978, but only 13 have been executed.

The last execution by lethal injection was more than a decade ago.

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