By Sophia Bollag | The Sacramento Bee
Governor explains his personal and passionate view behind halting death penalty
Gov. Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on the death penalty in California on Wednesday, sparing the lives of more than 700 death-row inmates.
Saying the death penalty is “ineffective, irreversible and immoral,” he signed an executive order granting reprieves to all 737 Californians awaiting executions – a quarter of the country’s death row inmates.
His action comes three years after California voters rejected an initiative to end the death penalty, instead passing a measure to speed up executions.
The Democratic governor said the death penalty system has discriminated against mentally ill defendants and people of color, has has not made the state safer and has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.
