Newsom is right about the death penalty, it should be abolished – Orange County Register

If it weren’t for Governor Gavin Newsom going to bed with the California prison association, I would credit him more in these pages for his largely sound stances on criminal justice reform, including even the death penalty.

Before I defend Newsom against the will of voters on the death penalty, here is a brief summary of my original request.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a respected warden association with leftist leadership who has been condemned for California’s mass incarceration problem, endorsed Newsom for governor in 2018. and spent a lot on him.

As governor, Newsom signed off on supporting the union with hundreds of millions of dollars in absurd wage increases, bonuses and other gifts that could have been put to better use, I don’t know. , prevent crime so that people do not end up. to prison from the very beginning.

Last summer, not long after Newsom signed a major giveaway to the union, CCPOA contributed $1.75 million to protect him from the recall. Newsom followed suit by defending the union in court from the vaccine mandate, yes, vaccine authorization, required by the federal recipient that oversees the prison health care system.

Democratic leaders have been almost completely silent about all of that, because, remember, most political leaders (including many of your favorites) really don’t care. Pay attention to all the good talking points they say or tweet about from employees.

Anyway, back to the topic of the category.

I credit Newsom for his support of criminal justice reform, because no one can look at the criminal justice system and say it’s optimal, humane, or just.

The same is true of the death penalty system in California.

Nearly 700 people were put to death. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1978, more than 1,000 people have been sentenced to death, but more than (235) people have been convicted of unconstitutional or problematic and overturned convictions than have actually been executed. (13), according to the State Commission on the Amendment of the Penal Code.

Thus, in effect, government performance on the books of reality is a false promise of a punishment that may never come to pass.

Given the extensive legal processes involved in handling death penalty cases, an estimate by Judge Arthur Alarcón and Professor Paula Mitchell indicates that California has spent at least $4 billion on the death penalty system. his picture.

Defenders of the murder government will answer that the reason for these costs and failures is that it is too difficult to kill and that killing would be easier.

Then let’s consider who gets the death penalty.

Racial differences have become the norm when it comes to the death penalty. For example, 95% of people sent to death between 2010 and 2020 from Los Angeles County are non-white, with Blacks accounting for 43% of convictions even though the Black population is only 9%.

In other words, defenders of the murder government want the government to disproportionately mainstream minority groups and make it much easier to kill them.

I know this phrase is off-putting to some people – they might say they want to see the government killing people who just happen to be disproportionately not white as color blind or something – but that’s what it is. we’re talking about the government killing people.

And for this, I’ll credit Newsom for being ethically clear.