Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted all California death sentences on Thursday, declaring that \u201cstate-sanctioned killing is incompatible with\u201d values in America\u2019s most populous state.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to constituents, Newsom said taking this step is \u201camong the most difficult of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California\u2019s values,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
California has not put a prisoner<\/a> to death since Jan. 17, 2006, when Clarence Ray Allen was executed via lethal injection.<\/p>\n Newsom said his executive action will impact the \u201c548 people now under death sentence in California,\u201d making for \u201cthe largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n There were 561 inmates on death row as of Tuesday, according to Department of Corrections record<\/a>s<\/a>.<\/p>\n California\u2019s now-former death row prisoners include Richard Allen Davis, who was convicted in the murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas<\/a> in 1993.<\/p>\n Klaas had been abducted at knifepoint from her home in Petaluma, north of San Francisco, during a slumber party. The case drew national attention after it triggered a massive search that eventually led investigators to Davis, who then directed police to the girl\u2019s body in a shallow grave.<\/p>\n Marc Klaas, Polly\u2019s father, said Newsom\u2019s decision is a \u201cknife in the back\u201d to him and other victims\u2019 families who believe death row prisoners were lawfully sentenced.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievably disappointing,\u201d Klaas told NBC News. \u201cI was told that when this guy was sentenced to death that this was a system we can trust. But here we are, 33 years later, and it\u2019s a system we can\u2019t trust.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s action was embraced by death penalty abolitionists, human rights advocates and faith communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a day that will be remembered in California\u2019s history and resonate globally for years to come,\u201d Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe death penalty should be abolished, everywhere. Today marks a significant moment for human rights in California and across the country,\u201d Daar said.<\/p>\n Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended a brief pause in capital punishment with its landmark 1976 ruling in Gregg v. Georgia<\/a>, there have been 1,687 state executions, according to Death Penalty Information Center<\/a> records.<\/p>\n Texas has carried out the most executions in that time, 603, while California has carried out a death sentence just 13 times.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Newsom\u2019s announcement marks a decisive moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States,\u201d Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robin Maher said in statement. \u201cThough other governors have granted universal clemencies, none have been at this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s decree, for most death row inmates, would still need the approval of the California Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Newsom is frequently mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 2028<\/a>, and the timing of this announcement isn\u2019t lost on Klaas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about serial killers, we\u2019re talking about spree killers, we\u2019re talking about cop killers, we\u2019re talking about child killers,\u201d Klaas said. \u201cWhy, two days after the midterms<\/a>, does Gavin Newsom feel the need to commute these sentences? Who benefits from this?\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, the California District Attorney\u2019s Association condemned Newsom\u2019s decision, saying the governor replaced individual sentencing decisions that were reached after extensive legal proceedings \u201cwith a single executive decision that makes no distinction among the crimes committed, the circumstances of the offenders or the victims whose lives were taken.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has disregarded the decisions of hundreds of jurors and judges, and the anguish of families who lost loved ones to the worst crimes imaginable,\u201d said Monterey County District Attorney and association president Jeannine M. Pacioni. <\/p>\n San Luis Obispo County DA Dan Dow said Newsom\u2019s action is an affront the families of victims, whose killers were brought to justice by his office.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Newsom just told the families of Rachel Newhouse<\/a>, Aundria Crawford<\/a>, Kesha Gurke<\/a> and every other innocent victim of California\u2019s 548 condemned killers that the killers\u2019 lives matter more,\u201d Dow said in statement as immediate past president <\/a>of the California District Attorneys Association. <\/p>\n \u201cJuries chose justice case by case, voters chose it five times, and one outgoing governor is trying to erase it all with a pen. This is a sickening abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted all California death sentences on Thursday, declaring that \u201cstate-sanctioned killing is incompatible with\u201d values…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-519915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}