Commentary: The U.S is in the death business. Newsom can change that, and win votes
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Set us as preferred With not-terrible odds heading into the 2028 Democratic primaries, Gov.Gavin Newsom is getting one shared warning whispered in his ear by roughly 3,729 political consultants right now: Do not mess with the murderers.
Do not, under any circumstance, follow that inner voice that may be telling you to commute the death sentences of the 563 killers on California’s death row to life without parole, as Newsom recently admitted he was considering.Doing so would be a stupid move for an Oval Office wannabe, one already hobbled by the progressive persona of the Golden State.
“I’m getting all those people in my ear,” Newsom said during a podcast conversation with Bryan Stevenson, one of the preeminent death penalty lawyers in the country.“Don’t do it.
Politics.” Newsom already dismantled San Quentin’s execution chamber a few years ago, so the state can’t kill people even if it wanted to.But the governor has made it clear that he opposes the death penalty in principle because every year the evidence mounts that its implementation is flawed and racially biased.
As he put it, the decision on commuting the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere may be his “rocking chair test,” a measure of whether he will have lived up to his own ideals when he looks back on his life.Most other western countries have already banned the death penalty, leaving the U.S.in the company of places including North Korea and Libya when it comes to this punishment.
Twenty-three states have abolished it, and three besides California have a moratorium.Nine governors over the years have commuted their entire death row, including one Republican.
In 2024, on his way out of office, President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners, in part, Stevenson said, to prevent the Trump administration from using e...