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Even though California voters rejected an initiative to end the death penalty in the state, Governor Gavin Newsom is placing a moratorium on the death penalty, a move that will spare the lives of over 700 inmates now on death row.
California voters are not only in favor of the death penalty – they want to speed up the process.
Three years ago, voters in California rejected an initiative that seeks to end the death penalty in the state. Not only that, but they voted in favor of legislation that would speed up executions.
Now, in defiance of California voters, Governor Gavin Newsom will sign an executive order, effectively placing California’s death penalty law on hold.
Gavin has defended his actions by saying that the death penalty discriminates against both the mentally ill and people of color. Gavin says the death penalty has not made the state any safer and waste billions of taxpayer dollars.
“Our death penalty system has been – by any measure – a failure,” Newsom says. “The intentional killing of another person is wrong. And as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual.”
President Donald Trump blasted Newsom for the move, writing on Twitter: “Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!”
California is home to a quarter of all inmates on death row in the United States. By issuing the executive order halting the death penalty in California, all of its 737 inmates currently awaiting execution will receive a reprieve.
The death penalty in California is a slow process. It has been more than a decade that anyone has been executed in California due to the legal challenges involved in the state’s execution protocol.
However, 20 inmates who have exhausted their legal appeals could have been executed had Newsom not placed a moratorium on the death penalty.
