Trump clobbers California Gov. Gavin Newsom over death-penalty moratorium after he halts executions of ALL ‘737 stone cold killers’ on America’s largest death row over ‘failure’ of capital punishment
Gavin Newsom announced he will grant a reprieve to each inmate on Wednesday
The Democratic governor is also withdrawing the lethal injection regulations that death penalty opponents have already tied up in court
Since California’s last execution in 2006, the state’s death row population has grown to house one of every four condemned inmates in the U.S.
California voters are narrowly supported capital punishment, choosing a decade ago to speed up the process
‘Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers,’ Trump complained on Twitter
‘Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!’
By DAVID MARTOSKO
DAILYMAIL.COM
13 March 2019
President Donald Trump attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday after the Democrat halted the execution of hunreds of condemned inmates on the nation’s largest death row.
Newsom’s office said Tuesday that he will issue an executive order granting a reprieve to each of the state’s condemned inmates, guaranteeing them a reprieve for at least as long as he’s governor.
He’s also withdrawing the lethal injection regulations that death penalty opponents have already tied up in court. And he’s shuttering the new execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison that has never been used.
‘Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers,’ Trump complained on Twitter.
‘Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!’
California hasn’t executed anyone since 2006, under then-Republican Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, and death row inmates are far more likely to die of old age.
The state’s voters have narrowly supported the death penalty, most recently in 2016 when they voted to speed up the process.
California’s condemned population is now the nation’s largest, representing one-quarter of those awaiting execution in the United States.
They include Richard Davis, who kidnapped 12-year-old Polly Klaas during a slumber party and strangled her, and Lonnie Franklin Jr, convicted of killing nine women and a teenage girl in Los Angeles. He’s known as the ‘Grim Sleeper’ because detectives thought he took a 14-year break in killing between 1988 and 2002.
Newsom’s office said he can act unilaterally because he’s enacting a moratorium, not changing anyone’s sentence. He’s not commuting any death sentences, which in many cases would require agreement from the state Supreme Court.
A governor needs approval from the state Supreme Court to pardon or commute the sentence of anyone twice convicted of a felony, and the justices last year blocked several clemency requests by former Gov Jerry Brown.
While the governor’s move is certain to be challenged in court, aides cite his power to grant reprieves written into the state Constitution.
‘I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people,’ Newsom said in prepared remarks.
‘In short, the death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian.’
The Rest…HERE
