Assembly Speaker Antonio R. Villaraigosa has appointed Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, to the state Commission on Judicial Performance. The eleven-member commission is an independent state agency that handles complaints about California judges involving judicial misconduct or wrongdoing. The commission has authority over active judges and also over former judges for their conduct before retirement from the bench. Commissioners receive no salary but are reimbursed for the expense of serving on the commission.

In a statement released July 17, Speaker Villaraigosa said, "Ramona Ripston is a long-time defender of civil rights and a champion of justice. Her extensive experience with the state's judicial system, along with her professional integrity, make her an excellent choice for this commission. She will act in the very best interest for all Californians."

Ramona Ripston has served as the executive director of the ACLU of Southern California since August of 1972, except for a period of 18 months beginning in January of 1986, when she became a Vice-President in charge of the Western Region of People for the American Way.

Under her leadership, the ACLU of Southern California has become the busiest of all 53 national ACLU affiliates, with a docket of more than 100 active cases, a 35-member staff, and a membership of nearly 30,000.

She holds positions on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Board of Visitors of Southwestern University of Law, the First Amendment Foundation, and Human Rights Watch. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law and has received numerous honors and awards from civil rights organizations.

In 1969 Ms. Ripston was a co-founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws which became the National Abortion Rights Action League following the historic 1973 Roe vs Wade guaranteeing a woman's right to reproductive freedom.

Prior to coming to the ACLU of Southern California, Ms. Ripston held positions with the ACLU National office an the New York and New Jersey affiliates. In addition, she was the Director of Public Affairs for the New York Urban Coalition. She majored in Political Science at Hunter College in New York.

Ms. Ripston speaks extensively on the First Amendment, reproductive freedom, the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, poverty and civil liberties, police practices and the constitution.

She is married to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ACLU of Southern California has sent letters to the Presiding Judges of both the Municipal and Superior Courts of Los Angeles County calling on the courts to ensure that judges or other court personnel will terminate use of stun belts to punish or subdue non-threatening defendants.

On June 30 Long Beach Municipal Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassini ordered a bailiff to send 50,000 volts of electricity through a bound defendant because he was talking too much. The ACLU joined a national and international coalition of human rights activists who demand that this inhumane practice be ended, once and for all.

Letter sent to Los Angeles County Municipal Court Presiding Judge Veronica S. McBeth and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert W. Parkin follow:

"On June 30 Long Beach Municipal Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassini ordered a bailiff to send 50,000 volts of electricity through a bound defendant because he was talking too much.

"The ACLU Foundation of Southern California calls on the Court to ensure that this inhuman practice be ended at once and the use of electro-shock belts as punishment be forever banned.

"As you are aware, these belts were originally designed to control physically violent defendants for whom no other means of restraint by law enforcement agents was possible. Their use must be restricted solely to those rare instances when a defendant becomes violent and threatens the physical safety of court personnel and the public, and law enforcement has no other means to restrain the person.

"There are other obvious and tested solutions to behavior that is disruptive but not physically threatening. Defendants or others who interrupt court proceedings may be removed from the courtroom and even required to view the proceedings by video.

"Under the VIII Amendment to our nation's constitution we are forbidden to inflict `cruel and unusual punishment. . .' Use of the electro-shock belt as punishment for disruptive behavior is not only cruel and unusual but macabre, and coverts our courtrooms into modern day torture chambers. Meeting out punishment via the shock belt also constitutes an obvious and egregious violation of a defendant's right to due process."

"We seek an assurance from the Court that, with the sole exception of controlling a physically violent defendant who poses an imminent and extreme threat to public safety, use of the electro-shock belt will be banned from the courtrooms. Please be advised that without such representation, we will have no recourse but to litigate the practice immediately."

On June 30 Long Beach Municipal Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassini ordered a bailiff to send 50,000 volts of electricity through a bound defendant because he was talking too much.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California joins today's coalition of national and international human rights activists who demand that this inhuman practice be ended, once and for all. We demand that the Los Angeles County Superior and Municipal Courts ban these electro-shock belts which are nothing more than modern-day versions of Medieval torture devices. They have no place in our current criminal justice system.

There are other obvious and tested solutions. Defendants or others who are disruptive may be removed from the courtroom and even required to view proceedings by video.

Under the VIII Amendment to our nation's constitution we are forbidden to inflict "cruel and unusual punishment. . ." This macabre device is cruel and unusual and converts our courtrooms into modern day torture chambers.

To inflict a 50,000-volt shock to a defendant for interrupting a judge is as outrageous as it is uncivilized. The setting here is an American courtroom, not a sadistic psychology experiment. To allow this type of punishment to continue will damage us as a society, and make the Bill of Rights nothing more than an old piece of paper under glass with no substance. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Unless we receive an assurance from the court within a reasonable period of time that such punishment will be banned from our courtrooms, the ACLU is prepared to go forward in court to stop this barbaric practice.