The Governor of the US state of California, Gavin Newsom, announces plans to commute all of the state’s 548 death sentences, saying the convicted inmates will serve life without parole.
Vatican News
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on November 5 that he would commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In an open letter to Californians, Newsom said he was exercising his constitutional clemency authority. His office said the commutations would take effect once the necessary legal steps were completed.
California’s Constitution requires the state’s Supreme Court to review clemency proceedings for people convicted of a felony more than once. The governor’s office said he had submitted the matter to the court.
The commutations will change the sentences without overturning convictions, granting pardons, or making prisoners eligible for release.
Restitution orders will also remain in place, according to an official fact sheet.
Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions on March 13, 2019. California last carried out an execution in 2006.
The moratorium prevented further executions but left existing death sentences in place.
Explaining his decision in a statement, Newsom said he believed “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us.”
He also cited concerns about the fairness of the death penalty system and the conviction of innocent people. He noted that decades of attempts to repair the system had failed.
Newsom said he had consulted crime victims and survivors, prison wardens, jurors in capital cases, public safety experts, and religious and civil rights leaders.
He said the same commutation would apply to every condemned prisoner, describing life without parole as the most severe punishment he could lawfully impose.
The action does not abolish capital punishment in California, and applies only to sentences already in place.
In his letter, Newsom said the power to repeal the death penalty rests with the Legislature and voters, while attorneys and courts retain their roles in seeking, imposing, and upholding death sentences.
Source: www.vaticannews.va
