We’ve just seen a transformative moment in America’s death penalty history | Austin Sarat
Summary
California Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to commute more than 500 death sentences, removing those prisoners from the threat of execution. He said he opposes state executions on moral grounds and argued that clemency should not divide murder victims into different classes.Key Facts
- Newsom’s decision applies to more than 500 people on California’s death row.
- Newsom said the state cannot morally execute people, while recognizing the suffering caused by their crimes.
- Newsom said he had learned from victims’ families and concluded that clemency distinctions could create different classes of murder victims.
- The article describes the decision as the latest major step in Newsom’s opposition to capital punishment.
- In 1988, Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis reaffirmed his opposition to the death penalty during a televised interview about a hypothetical crime against his wife.
- Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, is among those whose sentences would be commuted.
- Davis’s case contributed to California’s passage of a three-strikes law in 1994, which increased sentences for repeat offenders.
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