Agreed with the Gov of California! Abolish the Death Penalty and have Life Without Parole! The Death Penalty is a “ Complete Waste Of Taxpayers money and Resources”! States like Texas where that state is taken an average of 15 yrs to execute an inmate upon Conviction to Last Appeals; costing the taxpayers countless millions on defense attorneys! 1 out of every 4 or 5 Americans DO NOT believe in Capital Punishment because of Wrongful Convictions and the possibility of executing an “ innocent inmate”! Life without Parole is the solution to the problem!
The new Governor says....
“I know people think eye for eye, but if you rape, we don’t rape,” he said. “And I think if someone kills, we don’t kill. We’re better than that.”
This kind of thinking is twisted and not based on reality. When someone's life is ended because of the death penalty, it is NOT Murder! And who said anything about rape? We never have and never will "RAPE" someone because they raped someone else.
The truth is not in this mans heart.
1
Let's put them in the general population and move on. It costs waaaaay to much money to have them on death row. Both in terms of actually housing and securing them, and in fighting legal challenges to the death penalty.
California all ready has a robust method of execution. They can bring anyone, doped up on drugs so they can't speak, into probate court, have them declared incompetent, then after there medicare runs out give them powerful antipsychotics so they can't even find their mouth with their hand, and let them starve to death. They only need to expand their all ready perverted sense on justice to the people who have been on death row too long.
What do you do with an already convicted murderer who kills a correctional officer?
25 additional years.
Don’t they already have enough democrat votes in CA?
3
The death penalty in 2019 America is a bigoted fickle "cruel and unusual punishment" that is no longer used by the world's civilized nations. Along with being the world's leading jailer, America is among the most primitive barbaric nations that still uses the death penalty.
5
All you need to do to agree with the governor is walk through San Quentin. The DR guys live relatively luxuriously; enjoying single cells, tv, radio, and other media. Pretty young Psych Techs stop by every day to offer mental health support, and dozens of psychologists cater to each inmate. Now go over to North, South or West Block. TWO men share a 7 x 10' cell, barely enough room to turn around. The DR guys will fight like crazy to keep Death Row and their cushy situation. So will CDCR, lawyers, and Mental Health, all who gather tons of money every year because of Death Row.
3
The Prez, an “Originalist” in so many ways, daily, unlike so many others, tweeted his conning-con to the Governer’s action: “Defying voters...neither am I.” Did he “forget” that he is President “defying voter’s” majority vote?
2
The overburdened taxpayer can finally stop footing the bill for an endless series of appeals.The state's justice system is freed up to deliberate on more pressing matters, instead of constantly relitigating old cases. California voters no longer have to deal with deciding on this polarizing wedge issue, and have a chance to turn their attention to issues that can improve their quality of life. Victim's families no longer have to wait decades for a chance to experience closure. Inmates will have to spend the rest of their lives facing the consequences, instead of escaping their boredom with the trap door of death. It seems all interested stakeholders win here.
"...Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!” As usual Trump goes for the rage.
Victims are not forgotten. Trump is wrong. But he's wrong as well if he thinks that state sanctioned murder solves the problems. There have been too many innocent people executed. How does executing an innocent person serve justice? It creates more victims.
There is ample evidence that the way the death penalty is used is biased. There is evidence aplenty that selecting death qualified jurors does not ensure that justice is done. Last month there was a story of a juror who believed that African Americans didn't have souls. Who needs that sort of person on a jury? A prosecutor determined to get the death penalty.
It's time we looked at who we are imprisoning and what we are doing to rehabilitate them. Most convicts are released. When they are in prison it would be a good idea to educate them, train them for decent jobs, and treat them like human beings. It would be better for prisoners if guards were trained as well. The more we treat prisoners like garbage the greater their anger will be when they are released. All we do when we treat them poorly and leave them open to attacks is prove to them that they are right in being criminals, in seeking revenge, and in continuing to be angry.
Some people have to be locked up for life. But not as many as we are locking up for life now.
4
One thing that glaringly caught my eye in this story is the fact that there were 737 people in California waiting to be executed. Californians are seriously considering killing 737 people? All at once? Spread out over 737 weeks (14 years) at 1 per week?
Let's get serious about the death penalty. Even the most ardent supported of the death penalty has to see that it is administered unfairly and arbitrarily and is ineffective as a meaningful deterrent. Inmates spend years, usually decades on death row making it all but meaningless.
Even if it is seen as morally acceptable (a dubious position at best) the way it is administrated is cruel and unusual punishment in direct violation of the US Constitution.
The only "purpose" the death penalty serves is as closure (revenge?) for the survivors - family members and friends of the victims. Is it healthy for society to cling to the concept of closure or revenge on one who may or may not have committed a murder long after the offense was committed?
I guess the answer is yes. Why else do we have this barbaric ritual.
3
So, you can get away with murder in California.
6
@SpotCheckBilly top pulling everyone's chain .... Murder in California is punished by life in prison, often without possibility of parole.
9
@SpotCheckBilly Yes, absolutely, if by "get away with it," you mean "go to prison for decades or possibly the rest of your life."
9
District attorney rep: “I think it surprises me too, sometimes,” she said. “California is liberal, I think we all know that. We have Hollywood, and the music industry, which I think affects people’s thinking." NO--it's because most Californians are educated, rational, decent and compassionate people who do not subscribe to the logic of an eye for an eye. "Hollywood" and "the music industry" reflect the values of Californians, not the other way around.
5
The last two votes put to Californians says precisely otherwise; and I say that as an unaffiliated CA voter who opposes capital punishment.
1
I can agree with ending capital punishment. But then it has to be life without the possibility of parole. Never understood when Charlie Manson and his gang had their death sentences commuted, they came up for parole. Seemed unconscionable to me but in the immortal words of Dennis Miller “that’s just my opinion — I could be wrong.”
1
@Caroilina If they had been sentenced to life without parole in the first place, that issue wouldn't have come up.
1
When a Republican takes executive action it’s unconstitutional. A Democrat, heroic. Who cares what the voters think,the cost on non-capital, capital punishment in California just keeps going way up. Somehow California goveror’s liberal moxy somehow has eluded them when it comes to Proposition 13.
3
@John Doe There's a big difference. Suspending these death sentences, and refusing to approve future sentences or executions, is clearly within the constitutional authority of the governor of California, unlike taking money from other parts of the federal budget to build a wall Congress has rejected, which is probably not within Trump's authority at all.
California voters will now have an opportunity to evaluate the governor's decision when he comes up for reelection. That's normal democratic politics, unlike trump's trickery.
5
So pleased that progressive California is finally taking a hard look at its hyper-punitive criminal justice policies. Formal abolition of the death penalty would be an appropriate next step. Reducing the egregious overuse of prison sentences and thus ending mass incarceration would be another.
California is a leader in so many things. It's time for it to be a leader in criminal justice as well.
4
@Grouch Yep, California will become a giant Baltimore with palm trees. That's one way to bring down property values and prices, I guess.
I’m a strong advocate of the death penalty. I think people who oppose it should get a dose of reality. States must be ruthless to prevent chaos. Like it or not.
2
@Chris McClure 14 states don't have the death penalty, including Hawaii, Washington, North Dakota and Vermont. Not exactly states that one thinks of as being in chaos.
1
You really want to live in a police state? The state is there to govern, with the consent of those governed; life without parole isn’t going to send society into chaos. Mistakes are often made, innocent people have been executed - not “maybe innocent” or had a “bad-lawyer innocent” or the “trial was biased innocent”, but factually innocent people who didn’t commit the crime. There’s no unringing that bell. It also gives the state too much power.
2
Justice delayed once more for those murderers is disgusting, and expensive too! Those found guilty of murder today are guilty beyond a shadow of doubt, and need to face the same fate, pronto! It is a deterrent, and is final closure for the aggrieved family members. Beside, the Good Book also provides for the death sentence for murder!
2
Great for California!! About time we joined the rest of the civilized world and abolished the Death Penalty completely.
5
Good for Governor Newsome. I could care less what Trump thinks, and why print it? For me, it is not "news".
Regardless, you cannot bring back the dead, no mattter what you feel. Forgiveness and acceptance may be high ideals, but that does not mean we can learn from them. An "eye for an eye" reminds me of "10,000 B.C.": This is not the Stone Age.
3
It is overdue for this country to join the rest of the civilized world and end this barbaric practice.
2
@theresa I notice no one ever dares to ask the criminals - home invaders, car jackers, muggers, armed robbers to end THEIR barbaric practices. It's just the victims, who obey the laws and don't hurt others who liberals consider "barbaric".
1
I have no objection per se to capital punishment other that sometimes the innocent are wrongly put to death. Capital punishment is simply not practical. Condemned individuals can die of old age before the sentence is carried out. There are endless expensive appeals paid for by the taxpayers. Capital punishment doesn't seem to have much of a deterrent effect, either. Personally, I think life in solitary without possibility of parole is a far worse punishment.
6
@Mike
That's a pretty big "other than."
4
Is your small objection to capital punishment not enough for you to oppose it altogether? Knowing that “sometimes “ an innocent person has been executed is just a marginal error?
A jarring incongruity is that self-described lefty “progressive” CA voters consistently support the death penalty when it’s put to a vote. Same as voters in other “blue” West Coast states of WA and OR. They will apparently continue doing so for some time to come. These are the same lefty folks routinely decrying “mass incarceration” and favoring “criminal justice reform.” Executing prisoners is an interesting way to accomplish those goals. Many progressives, it turns out, pick and choose when their actions match their words.
2
@Beantownah, I am a Tennessee rather than a California voter but I can assure you that in the last forty years I have met not one single "progressive" who supports the death penalty. America has some of the most draconian penalties in the world and they do nothing to eliminate or even reduce crime.
6
This is the right path. I recently read- would we rape a rapist as punishment? No- why kill as punishment? Who are we to take a life? Why does it make sense to say what u did is wrong, but when the government does it it is right? Well done Mr. Newsom, I pray others follow your example.
7
@Nat I agree. Even one innocent person executed is a major miscarriage of justice that makes us collectively guilty of murder.
5
This is extraordinary. Newsom's immediate predecessor--Jerry Brown--hated the death penalty, but refused to take any action during his four terms in office that spanned four decades. Brown's father, Pat, also hated the death penalty, but feared voter wrath during his two terms in office in the 1960s, so allowed executions. Other governors, such as Earl Warren, also disliked capital punishment, but oversaw dozens of executions in the 1940s and 1950s Finally, a governor with courage to act on his convictions.
With high profile cases like that of Kevin Cooper, on death row for more than three decades for a murder he may not have committed--plus the belated acknowledgment of vast sentencing disparities--he won't suffer any adverse consequences.
6
The death penalty doesn’t work. It cost California $5B over the past 40 years. It is not a deterrent. It is extremely discriminatory. 4 other states already lead the way. Time to do the right thing.
12
We do not elect leaders to blindly follow public whims; we elect leaders to set policy based on expertise—and yes, wisdom and compassion. Bravo, Mr. Newsom!
17
Point taken but having lived in San Francisco during Newsom’s tenure, he exhibits zero wisdom or expertise - in anything. And that for a San Francisco-molded politician speaks volumes.
As someone who has lost a family member to murder, I speak for myself, and I applaud this. We are not here to play God, or replicate evil acts in the name of vengeance. No man, government, or system has the right to take a person’s life. Life imprisonment, with the restricted activity and extended time for reflection, seems an appropriate punishment, especially for the perpetrator in our family’s case. Nothing will bring my loved one’s life back, and I’d rather not the state perpetuate the seemingly endless cycle of violence and death on my loved one’s behalf.
18
Execution teaches young people that the only appropriate or ethical response to violence is further violence, thus perpetuating a cycle of hatred and resentment. The only way out is to break this feedback loop and attempting to restore everyone to some type of role in society. Even if they remain behind bars their entire lives, those who have committed crimes can contribute to the world through writing, art, coding, and more.
4
It would seem that there is a very basic misunderstanding of the purpose of the Justice system. It is not established to obtain justice for the victims of crime but rather to ensure that the accused receive a fair and impartial evaluation of their guilt or innocence. The overwhelming evidence is that the death penalty is unequally and unfairly imposed, is cruel and unusual and is not a deterrent as it’s advocates often tout. It is far more expensive to execute a person than to lock them up and “throw away the key.” I agree that society should be protected from dangerous and habitual criminals and incarceration effectively does that. I am not better guarded by the execution of the same. Put the petty criminal to work with community service and save the money for imprisonment of the truly dangerous.
7
Each inmate affected by the Governor's suspension should have a detailed description of the crime for which he was convicted printed in newspapers.
4
@Teller and what good will that do? I'm sure that there were detailed descriptions when the crime was committed, when the inmate was caught, and after the sentencing. Public humiliation doesn't bring back the dead.
1
@Teller I would be reasonably certain that each inmate has already had a detailed description of their crimes published both in the paper and on local TV news. Capital murder tends to be considered newswirthy.
1
@hen3ry
Public humiliation of the convicted is not the point. The point of reprinting the details of one's crime is to see how much you can stomach before you question a sweeping suspension of all executions.
1
Thank you Governor Newsom. I support ending the death penalty and I'm a California voter.
8
The Governor does not have the right to overrule the will of the people if there was a lawful vote to retain the death penalty.
This same type of action by the courts is happening in NJ even though there was a vote to retain the death penalty.
I firmly believe that if a person brutally murders another they should be permanently removed from society.
I am old enough to clearly remember the Richard Buchenwald case in which he brutally murdered 5 people . He was initially convicted of a dual murder in which he not only killed, but dismembered a young woman. He was sentenced to life in prison, but actually only served 17 years. After release from prison he killed 3 more people and was convicted again and sentenced to death. He died on death row never receiving the lethal injection.
My point is that these brutal murderers must be removed from society permanently so they never again have the opportunity to kill again. If we cannot keep these people in prison then I am absolutely for the death penalty that should not be overturned by a Governor or the judicial system without the approval of the voting public.
1
@VMG
I'm not sure what "vote to retain the death penalty" you are referencing. NJ hasn't had the death penalty since 2007, when the legislature voted to replace the death penalty with life without parole (solving the problem of a murderer being released after just a few years). This was not instigated by the courts. Prior to abolition, the last execution in NJ was in 1963.
1
There should be fast track executions of these type of inmates. No more years of waiting. They should have 60 days to appeal their convictions and once that is reviewed and their conviction upheld then they should be executed within 30 days via the cheapest method possible. Hanging or bullet works and is cost effective. Oh but in California the taxpayers have tons of excess money to spend on housing feeding and caring for these inmates for decades.
A brutal, barbaric approach that would result in an even greater rash of wrongful executions with no chance for anyone in the justice system to recognize their mistake in such a short time period. False convictions are real and frequent.
Not to mention the inhuman nature of these recommended methods - hanging is easy to botch, resulting in slow, painful strangulation rather than a quick neck break, and people survive gunshots with some regularity, even to the head. This is a monstrous suggestion.
4
The question is how many innocent people, who are too poor to afford a proper defense, are you willing to execute for your fast-track system?
4
@Bill Cunnane
Inmates are found innocent 20, even 30, years after their conviction. If you want to kill them off after 90 days, how many innocent people do you think will be executed?
3
The Richard family who lost their son, implored federal prosecutors to take the death penalty "off the table" with regards to the infamous Boston Marathon crimes. In part, to spare themselves from waiting decades to receive closure for their loss. As such, it's hard to unilaterally argue that Gov. Newsom's decision is an affront to victims or their families.
6
The problems with capital punishment are many. There is good evidence that it is applied in discriminatory ways. There is likewise good evidence that a non-negligible fraction of those convicted and sentenced to capital punishment are innocent. The methods used can be brutal, torturing the person in the last moments of his (and it nearly always is a he) life. This is all aside from the financial impact--it costs much more than life imprisonment.
Perhaps most the greatest problem with capital punishment, though, is that it diminishes and demeans us all. If we say that killing someone is wrong, how can killing the killer be right? By doing so, we make ourselves no better than the original killer.
7
Given that a certain percentage of people on death row have been exonerated of the crimes for which they were condemned, the death penalty should be abolished nationwide. As is often said, I'd rather see ten murderers go free than one innocent person killed.
Furthermore, contrary to common belief, it is more expensive to impose the death penalty than to imprison a person for life, given the cost of numerous appeals.
We should be putting our resources into preventing these crimes. Death as a punishment is clearly not a deterrent if there are over 700 people on death row in just one state.
8
Wonderful.
Please keep these people in California.
2
When we obey the laws of the state, we do so for our own protection and/or for the common good. If laws against murder apply to the individual, they should apply to the state.
3
The death penalty is barbaric and does not deter anyone from committing a crime. It is time to give it up!
9
Given the many instances of people of color disproportionately being given the death penalty, and DNA evidence proving that death row inmates were not guilty of the crimes they committed, I cannot imagine a situation where in good conscience we could execute someone. Add to that the legal expense that the American taxpayer has to take on (much more expensive than keeping the inmates alive), and I can't see how the death penalty does anyone any good.
Also, that whole thing about an eye for an eye making the whole world blind.... I can have compassion for families and understand how wrong the death penalty is for society, not just for those who are put to death by that law.
Bravo, Governor.
2
Any President could pardon all death penalty inmates. Will Democrats go on record promising to fellow Newsom if elected? Or will they test the winds and cast aside their moral souls to get elected. And while we're at it. Why not promise not to use "the Button"?
"Every murderer when he kills runs the risk of the most dreadful of deaths, whereas those who kill him risk nothing except advancement."
-Albert Camus
1
As recent as 2016, the voters of California affirmed their commitment to keeping the death penalty by rejecting Proposition 62 'Repeal the Death Penalty'. Real political leadership would have been working to find a way to legislate out of the current legal morass it takes to execute these horrible criminals. Congratulations goes to Gavin Newsom though, you just got the political support of Richard Davis (who kidnapped and murdered Polly Klaas), and Scott Peterson (who killed his 9 month pregnant wife and tossed her body in San Francisco Bay) and many more evil people on death row. Basically, you just spit in the face of all the victim's families. Does their pain and suffering matter to anyone?
1
Amen, about time.
Nice to hear a leader act on heartfelt morals (rather than petty oneupmanship).
18
Retired California death penalty prosecutor here. I think the death penalty is morally correct, but unworkable. When I retired last year, I was still handling a death penalty case resulting from a murder I read about in the newspaper when I was in law school 39 years earlier, and for which the defendant was promptly prosecuted. There is absolutely no doubt the defendant was guilty, and no doubt he should be executed, a fact even the 9th Circuit saw. But there were still endless legal roadblocks available to him, and all I could see happening was that the taxpayers would be supporting teams of lawyers and investigators in the case without any end in sight. The problem is that, with the death penalty, we as a society demand absolute certainty, not just with regard to the act committed, but with regard to whether the person committing the act is deserving of the death penalty. Under American law, proving the murder is just the first step. It must be followed by determining the appropriate punishment, and that determination depends on anything the defense can think of—underprivileged childhood, overprivileged childhood, drug use, learning disability, mother drank, someone in the family suffered mental illness—anything. And an attorney picking one line of defense will necessarily miss others, which will likely result in that attorney being found ineffective for not having chosen one of the others, thus starting the process over. The process is simply unworkable.
6
@Barry Carlton
I thank you for your service.
I am sure it must have been extremely hard and frustrating but (some of) the citizens of our country salute you.
2
I wonder if Gavin Newsom’s family members were brutally murdered whether he would feel comfort knowing that the murderer is spending the rest of his life in prison, with 3 square meals aday, reading books and magazines and watching TV. I agree with opponents of the death penalty that it is not a deterrent. But society has always had the right to punish those of its members guilty of such horrific behavior that is far beyond the pale - “shocking to the conscience” as the expression goes. It is not “cruel and unusual” – it is justice. It is a recognition that we are human and subject to negative emotions, like vengeance as well as positive ones, like compassion and mercy. I believe it is a false piety that insists that we remain unemotional in the face of the most outrageous criminal conduct and simply “get them off the streets”. We have evolved from executing boys for stealing a loaf of bread as in Dickens’ England. The only flaw – and it is a grievous one – is that sometimes an innocent person is executed. Prosecutorial misconduct, racism and poor legal representation are things that can be made right, although not without difficulty, as well as evolving forensic science. It should be difficult to sentence someone to death. But if strict standards and procedures are observed, it should be carried out.
23
@styleman " The only flaw – and it is a grievous one – is that sometimes an innocent person is executed."
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
16
@styleman
"The only flaw – and it is a grievous one – is that sometimes an innocent person is executed."
That "flaw" is reason enough to end executions.
11
@styleman I would question - respectfully of course - how "prosecutorial misconduct, racism, and poor legal representation can be made right"? To me, misconduct and poor representation are embedded in the justice system, and any policy proposals that address them would face overwhelming pushback. The idea that racism could somehow be solved in this or any other context, even with "difficulty," seems absurd.
4
Why not let all of the convicted felons and murderers out and hope they lead productive, meaningful lives..
4
Going from putting a symbolic moratorium to “let them all out.” That’s the biggest straw-man argument, if there ever was one.
6
@Aaron A question nobody is asking, so why are you? Here are some better question: Why can't we invest our money and ingenuity into education, mainstream mental healthcare, view drug addiction as a healthcare issue instead of a crime, and treat guns as lethal weapons instead of toys? When we properly address those issues, the bloodlust behind capital punishment abates.
3
Congratulations. I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I truly believe the Death Penalty must be available, for the worst, of the Worst. A Federal Death Penalty, for Terrorists, Foreign OR Domestic, and Mass Killers. My go to example is Timothy McVeigh. Otherwise, the States have no business Executing People. It's all random luck, or lack of same. The Rich or famous prevail. Minorities and the poor are basically screwed, and at the mercy of the Police and ambitious Prosecutors. THIS is a very important step.
7
@Phyliss Dalmatian
But McVeigh was contemptuous of his own execution. Furthermore, he eschewed appeals (which led to the quickness of its imposition).
The problem with your logic is that a line that has to be drawn for who is eligible and who is not is always going to be arbitrarily and feel unfair to some. For instance, I've always believed that Scott Peterson was sentenced to death because his wife was really pretty and the media ran with the story. If Laci was 250 lbs the murder would have been largely unreported and Scott would have been quietly sentenced to life imprisonment.
Basically, proponents of the DP argue that if perfection can be achieved in the process the whole thing is salvageable. I don't think it is and it isn't worth the costs. I feel diminished as a person when reading accounts of an execution.
I'm proud of Newsome and Governer Inslee in my own state who earlier took the same step.
2
I used to be a proponent of the death penalty but after seeing it costs more for a state to kill a stone cold killer than to allow them to rot in jail. I've changed my mind. I understand retribution and justice but my tax dollars are sacred and should be used for the victims and their families. Even Timothy McVeigh,who asked for no appeals,had mandatory appeals and I wouldn't have minded holding a watch party for that sentence. The State Post conviction is usually mandatory then there's the Federal Habeas Corpus.All appeals are somewhere around 1 million dollars of tax dollars. That's just a guesstimate. But they are not cheap. Cost analysis isn't a moral compass but it is a stern reminder of how precious our time is.
5
Bravo Governor Newsom.
17
During Lent..Amen...It is Barbaric
6
@TWShe Said
So is abortion, but apparently our society feels that murderers have more "rights" than unborn children. We are a very confused society that pretends that we have the answers to very complex issues.
@VMG No, our society believes that women have the right to control their own bodies.
2
I identify as a liberal Democrat... but when it comes to the Death Penalty, I am a strong supporter. If you have committed a truly heinous murder, and there is no question of your guilt (caught in the act?), then there is no use for you on this planet.
8
@Tom There are many people in our society for whom the planet "has no use," as you put it so smugly. You and I may well be among them, in someone else's view. But is that really the mindset to build a healthy society? Compelling criminals to confront and atone for their crimes would help not only them but also their victims and our society as a whole, and we would learn more about preventing future crime (hint: education and healthcare).
2
@Tom
"then there is no use for you on this planet." Talk/Writing like that sends shivers down my spine. In my opinion, no person or society has the right to assess a persons value or even worth use for what- or whomever because that says that one has a greater right to live than another person. (That's how the true evil, genocides and purges, started in history.) If a society does not value each life equally, how can it expect obedience to the law in general and respect to the life of others?
2
That may make you a Democrat, but I’d challenge the “liberal” part.
1
Do VICTIMS' lives matter at all in Cali?
8
@me
Brown, black and other minorities are the people who sit on death row. They are not at all guilty and have been convicted in many case by overeager prosecutors on flimsy evidence. They will be there until they die of old age. How humane is that.
Cali is in Colombia btw. There is no state in the union by that name.
2
@me How does execution, especially of an innocent person, help victims? There is no proof that the death penalty is a deterrent, so it basically functions as a form of state-sponsored revenge.
1
@me
Obviously not.
And neither does the will of the voters. Twice in recent years Californians have voted down referendums that would have abolished the death penalty.
But, Newson is an elite liberal Democratic who feels that democracy should be limited in his state. He, with superior intelligence and morality, has the right to ignore the choices of voters.
2
A politician acting on, not just claiming, his moral conscience! Will wonders never cease. Personally, I agree with Thomas Laqueur, who wrote in the London Review of Books in 2000, "Some people in this country can imagine a secure moral order only if it is somehow underwritten by these exercises in death. Most people would want, on first impulse, to cause as much pain as possible to those who cause pain to their loved ones."
"It is the work of civilization to mitigate such impulses, to acknowledge that this sort of sacrificial violence is no longer necessary to sustain the social compact. We no longer live in the supposedly unified communities of old. Human sacrifice is not what keeps a pluralistic society together and it is time that some American politician said as much."
20
If the public truly supports the death penalty, they should also be comfortable acting as executioners in some capacity as well. If jury duty is a civic duty, so should flipping the switch to end someone's life following a thorough appeals process.
Governors are asked just this, to sign off on the death of these people. Given the number of times we've been wrong and locked up or executed the wrong person, I can't see the value in taking that risk.
19
@Zack Great idea. Mandatory online voting on each execution by every citizen with public reporting and EuthTube live streaming.
Since public services seem according to the Right only the subject of charity, perhaps President Trump's Wall can be built with voluntary contributions. I hear he's so rich he can fund it out of his own pocket.
As a CA voter, and liberal, I miss Jerry Brown already. Newsom so clearly has his eye on running for the presidency, that he is willing to hand Trump and the republicans a perfect wedge issue right as the 2020 campaign gets going. There haven’t been any executions in CA for over a decade so this is pure political grandstanding, a style over substance move, similar to the kind of moves that Trump pulls to keep his base happy.
3
@Ke People said exactly the same thing about Newsom when he legalize same-sex marriage 15 years ago. What wouldvyou say about that now?
3
@Ke Going against popular public bloodlust is hardly pandering to the electorate! Doing the right thing, even handing the opposition a "wedge issue" is what a courageous leader does. You just don't recognize it because we see it so seldom!
2
Living in San Francisco during Newsom’s tenure, I would say exactly the same as the original poster. Newsom is a vapid and grandstanding opportunist, and was the fulcrum on which Prop 8 was placed onto the ballot, which did in fact, pass by the way, lest we forget. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Seems within the governor's powers to spare the state of California years more of extremely expensive, unsustainable court battles. It's hard to find a political downside. Even many victim's family members dislike having to wait decades to experience closure concerning the crime.
8
"Always forgotten victims?" The victims' rights movement has overtaken the criminal justice system and reverted it to the dark ages. Retribution, especially given the corruption of police & prosecutors and the unreliability of witnesses, is not justice. Death is not justice for an innocent person, and too many innocent (or possibly innocent) people have been executed under this policy.
28
The death penalty largely didn’t make sense historically, as courts had to rely on notoriously unreliable eyewitness testimony.
Now that cameras and GPS information are ubiquitous, we should be expediting death sentences for the worst among us, not postponing them indefinitely at taxpayer expense.
@Russell
How many murders are actually caught on camera with clear views of faces (and supporting evidence of identity, since people have dopplegangers)?
1
As a Californian I am happy to hear that governor Newsome has taken this step. The death penalty is wrong for many reasons. Just as the criminal justice system is unfair to many.
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What can be more cruel and unusual punishment than the death penalty? In addition, it has never been proven to be a deterrent for crime.
I remember when I heard the of the Death Penalty here in the U.S. as a young immigrant of 10 years old, and I remember being terrified that I might get unjustly killed by the government in the U.S. as even then, I was aware that innocent people are killed in this way.
What message do we send to our young when we say it is wrong to kill but it's OK for the Government to do so?
It is time for the U.S. to stop bein a revenge oriented system. What kind of society kills its citizens on purpose to get even?
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Gov. Inslee of Washington did the same 5 Years ago and survived Legislative and Court challenges. CA is coming to the party when the work is done.
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But I assume you consider it a welcome addition to the justice of your state’s position.
Death row inmates are frequently sentenced to death despite poor legal defense(s) and win-at-all-costs prosecutions that undermine a defendants right to a fair trial; And some who are wrongfully convicted are executed because Innocents Projects and Conviction Review Units are not resourced to help all. A just society cannot allow executions of ANY who have slipped through the cracks.
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I concede that there are monsters among us that have been convicted of crimes so terrible that they cry out for the ultimate punishment.
We also become those monsters when we err and execute and imprison innocent people.
The difference is we should know better, and do nothing about it.
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One has to ask what purpose does Capital punishment accomplish.It is not a deterrent as it has not stopped murder. the only purpose seems to be is the fleeting emotion of revenge for the loved ones of the victim, I can almost understand this emotion if the murderer was beaten to death with a bat, but lethal injection, attempts to eliminate pain & make it a civilized way to murder someone, which is a oxymoron.
I believe that life in solitary is a more painful way to end your life.
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Cheers to Newsom for being a true leader.
Capital punishment, civic-sponsored execution, is a relic of the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, tribal tradition. Although execution conducted by the justice system is better than vigilante lynch mobs and witch burnings—there is at least an appointed authority, a legal process and a burden of proof—the idea of government killing on our behalf, as punishment to satisfy our baser human impulses, needs to be revisited.
I was asked, “If someone you love was murdered, wouldn’t you want that murderer to die?” The answer is and was an emphatic yes—and to die horribly at that. But at that point I am no longer a voice of reason.
We do not elect leaders to pander to our baser, populist instincts: we elect government to be bigger and better than we are as individuals; to represent the good, the just, the transcendent, the aspirational.
Abolishing slavery, breaking up Jim Crow laws, instituting women’s voting rights: today no one questions the rightness of these decisions, but at the time they were controversial (and the Civil Rights Act was only passed 55 years ago!).
Good leaders lead us where we need to be led, even if we don’t quite realize it yet.
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@Daron Kallan
Slavery and woman's rights have absolute nothing to do with murders. They were both injustices against innocent victims. Convicted murderers are not innocent victims.
@VMG, true that they’re not identical. The parallel is that, in their time, elected representative government took action contrary to widely held populist thinking, in furtherance of ideals that today we hold almost universally to be wise, just and self-evident.
At its best, civilized society aims to transcend, not amplify, our baser human tendencies, and to evolve the ethos of humanity. In 100 years, I have to believe we would look back at state-sponsored execution with the same incredulity that we view other barbarisms of the past.
If Newsom is indeed going against the populist wishes of majority California, it is to be on the right side of history.
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Good on ya, Governor. The 16th century has been over for a long time now, and our justice system needs to recognize that murder for murder is not worthy of a civilized country, especially when so many innocent people are executed in error.
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The more I learn about Newsom, the more I like him.
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As far as I can tell, the death penalty hasn't helped a single victim, and has killed many innocent people.
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I am thrilled by Gavin Newsom's decision to suspend capital punishment. And I am the sister of a murder victim.
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@Megan
I am curious as to why you would be thrilled by Newsom's decision when you have experience the murder of your sister. My Godmother was murdered over 50 years ago and I'm am still resentful that her murderer was never caught and punished.
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@Megan
Sorry to hear of your loss.
A bold step in the interests of justice, by America's newest mega-state governor. I applaud his courage.
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@AJ Where is the "justice" for the murderers' VICTIMS and their families? Or for Cali citizens who overwhelmingly support DP and pay this governor's salary?
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Once someone is dead, they are beyond justice or compensation. Execution is merely revenge.
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@me
in 2016, 51 percent of California citizens voted to keep the death penalty. That is a majority but according to math, Californians are more like split in half than overwhelmingly supporting death penalty.
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My opposition to the death penalty is not based on compassion or forgiveness of those guilty of terrible crimes, it is based on belief in our justice system. A justice system needs to be a dispassionate methodology aimed at improving our society. Killing people is an act of revenge, plain and simple; it contradictory to a cool, calculated weighing of the consideration between crime and punishment. Additionally I would ponder which would be the worse punishment: a lifetime behind bars or an early death ?
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@eclectico Depends a great deal on what the prisoner can do in jail. Right now, they can run an illegal business over their illicit cell phones, sell drugs, and call for assassinations. All because of the bribes and prison culture where cell phones, which are not allowed, are everywhere.
They will also be allowed to go to school and have free medical, TVs, food, and just about anything the far left insists are their rights.
Step one, make it illegal for any prison to have cell towers or access to mobile phone use. Step two, stop making any type of luxury available to any prisoners in jail for violent crime. Instead, expose them to the pain and suffering they have caused society for the rest of their lives.
Slowly but surely until as Lincoln said of slavery and I am paraphrasing him, it will be painted into a corner till its ultimate extinction.
The main long term effect of the death penalty is to help re elect idea bankrupt demagogue pols. like Trump.
Just about all of our app. 30 peer countries, long standing industrialized democracies have all but eliminated it.
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@Paul Please explain. How do you claim the long term effect of the death penalty helps re-elect Trump? On what planet are you coming from? And please, tell me why the US should follow any country's policies?
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@Ma-Thank you for your reply. Yes we should follow 30 countries other policies if they work. Almost all 30 countries have eliminated the death penalty and have much lower murder rates then we do especially with guns.
Ma, the demagogue has always been around from the first one Alcibiades in classical Greece to one of the last Chavez In Venz. Trump is just the latest one. They always use capital punishment as red meat to the rabble to help them get elected instead of coming up with policies like our peer countries have.
The one universal policy that almost all have is elimination of the death penalty.
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Americans favor the death penalty--polls reveal this truth. It is, contrary to the governor's claim, a part of civilized society.
Life imprisonment is not a just punishment for murder. Life imprisonment is ..........life.
What liberals are doing is giving yet one more way for Democrats to vote for Trump.
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@Dan So you are arguing for vengeance, rather than for the deterrence factor on which advocates have long justified their support.
The question, asked by the great Bryan Stevenson, is not whether convicts deserve to die, but whether we deserve to kill. And there is way too much evidence to suggest that we don't get it right, far too often.
I find it interesting that so many people who don't believe government can do anything right - run a school, run a healthcare system - have such faith in the government's ability to sentence and execute only guilty people.
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@Dan
Here's a thought, you can be a Democrat and not a far left liberal and still believe in the death penalty without ever voting for Trump.
“...our bedrock values....what it means to be a Californian”?..
You can’t be serious Governor, or was this just bad timing by your public information officer?
The bedrock values of Californians were on full display yesterday during the FBI roundups of California actresses et al indicted for racketeering by bribing co-conspirators to gain acceptance for their children into major universities.
Indeed Governor, we all feel better now that we know what those California values lead to...
Federal indictments.
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