[3] Proposition 66 was approved by voters in the November general election, with 51.1% voting to speed up executions.

[4] Proposition 62, which would have abolished the death penalty in California, was rejected by voters in the same election, with 53.1% voting against it.

[5] The measure was opposed by the editorial boards of the Los Angeles Times,[6] the San Francisco Chronicle,[7] and The Sacramento Bee.

[8] After Prop 66 passed, former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp, along with Ron Briggs (whose father John Briggs was the sponsor of Prop 7 in 1978, which expanded capital punishment in California), challenged the measure in court.

On December 20, 2016, the California Supreme Court stopped Prop 66 from going into effect pending resolution of the legal challenge.