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Hundreds of attorneys representing local bar associations around California are urging a moratorium on the death penalty in the state. The Conference of Delegates of the California Bar Associations represents prosecutors, criminal defenders and civil attorneys from dozens of bar groups. They say executions should be put on hold until an study can be done on whether the state fairly administers the death penalty. The group is urging the California Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to impose a two-year moratorium on executions. The attorneys want to create an investigative committee focusing on race and whether death penalty inmates had good legal representation. Thirty-five percent of death penalty inmates in the state are black, even though blacks make up just six percent of the state's population. [more

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