Furious cops plead with Gavin Newsom to halt death penalty commutation: Worst of the worst
California’s police chiefs sent a plea to Gov.Gavin Newsom Wednesday to not follow through on sparing 563 inmates from the death penalty — warning that doing so could have disastrous consequences for public safety.Calling the potential commutation “outrageous,” a group of top cops said the move would give a pass to heinous criminals like Richard Allen Davis, killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, and undermine the work of law enforcement and juries.
“These are the worst of the worst — individuals who committed horrific murders and were sentenced to death by juries after hearing the evidence,” Tustin Police Chief Sean Thuilliez, who heads the California Police Chiefs Association, said in a statement.Conversations in Newsom’s circles over the potential mass clemency for some of the state’s most notorious inmates ramped up after Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike, which went horribly awry when two doses of the highly potent sedative Pentobarbital failed to kill her, the New York Times reported.But such an action, police chiefs warned, could also mean more dangerous people out in the streets while overriding decisions made by juries.There are now more legal avenues for resentencing, sentence review and commutation, the police association noted.
New regulations, for instance, could lead some criminals — even those serving life without parole — to be considered for clemency or sentence reductions to the governor or courts.“The governor is considering taking those sentences away and replacing them with a punishment that offers no guarantee these murderers will spend the rest of their lives in prison.That is outrageous, and it is an insult to the victims and families who have waited decades for justice,” Thuilliez said.Pressure was growing for the governor to enact a mass death row commutation even before the Pike incident, though the California Supreme Court would have to approve commutations for people with multiple felony convictio...