Exclusive | Ex-Dem Senate leader asks California Supreme Court to block Gavin Newsoms death row commutations

Former California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero is asking the state Supreme Court to block Gov.Gavin Newsom’s sweeping commutations of all 548 death row inmates, accusing the outgoing Democrat of abusing his power to burnish his national political ambitions.Romero, who served 12 years in the Legislature and was the first woman to lead the state Senate as majority leader, told the California Post exclusively that Newsom’s decision to spare all 548 condemned inmates was a calculated political stunt aimed at appealing to the Democratic Party’s increasingly left-wing base.“This was a political ploy; a blatant, political ploy to basically put his name out there in Michigan and to the Talaricos and all of them that: ‘Hello, my presidential delusions of grandeur are still in place,’” Romero said.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story Newsom announced last Thursday that he would commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates on California’s death row, converting their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.The governor called it one of the “most difficult” decisions of his career, defending the move in a letter to Californians as a “righteous action.”“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom wrote.The governor also said California “cannot morally kill” the inmates, adding the state could “let these offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honor the victims.”But Romero, a former East Los Angeles lawmaker who left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party, isn’t buying the explanation.“He’s been in office for 30 years, as...