California governor suspends death penalty

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending the death penalty in the state, calling it “ineffective, irreversible, and immoral.”

“The death penalty has been an abject failure,” he said in a tweet after signing the order. “It discriminates based on the color of your skin or how much money you make. It’s ineffective, irreversible, and immoral. It goes against the very values that we stand for — which is why CA is putting a stop to this failed system.”

The death penalty has been an abject failure. It discriminates based on the color of your skin or how much money you make. It’s ineffective, irreversible, and immoral. It goes against the very values that we stand for — which is why CA is putting a stop to this failed system.

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 13, 2019

In issuing the executive order, Newsom granted reprieve to the 737 individuals currently on death row in California. 

{mosads}Media outlets first reported Tuesday night that Newsom would issue the order. 

During a news conference Wednesday, Newsom noted a National Academy of Sciences report that estimated 4 percent of people on death row are innocent.

“If that’s the case, that means if we move forward with executing 737 people in California, we will have executed roughly 30 people that are innocent,” Newsom said.

“I don’t know about you,” he added. “I can’t sign my name to that. I can’t be party to that. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.”

The order is likely to face legal challenges from pro-death penalty groups and prosecutors, according to the Los Angeles Times. Ballot measures that would have eliminated the death penalty in California were unsuccessful in both 2012 and 2016.

California has executed 13 people since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an organization that advocates against capital punishment. The last person the state executed was Clarence Allen in 2006.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a presidential candidate and California’s former attorney general, praised Newsom’s move, saying it was “an important day for justice and for the state of California.”

“As a career law enforcement official, I have opposed the death penalty because it is immoral, discriminatory, ineffective, and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Harris said.

The executive directors of the ACLU of California also commended the decision, calling it “a watershed moment in the fight for racial equity and equal justice for all,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“We commend Governor Newsom for exercising leadership and acknowledging that California’s death penalty is biased and broken beyond repair,” added executive directors Abdi Soltani, Norma Chávez Peterson and Hector Villagra.

But others criticized the move, including President Trump, who said in a tweet that families and friends of victims were “not thrilled” with the decision.

“Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers,” Trump said. “Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!”