There has been a huge firestorm after the California governor announced plans to commute all of state's 548 death penalty convictions to life imprisonment without parole, reports Fox News.
In fact, legal challenges are underway condemning the decision, arguing that the sweeping move overrides juries, disregards victims' families, and defies the will of state voters.
Fox noted some of the death row inmates — cop killers, serial killers and others — who executions are now in question. One serial killer, Randy Steven Kraft, was given several names, including the "Southern California Strangler," after committing a series of murders from 1972 and 1983. He is convicted of killing 16 young men and suspected of 51 other deaths.
According to Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a press conference was held on Thursday by law enforcement leaders, elected officials and advocates of the victim who are against Newsom's decision and are determined to push back.
Kevin McGary, president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California, believes that those "despicable animals" should be executed.
"I don't think they should be on death row in perpetuity. To commute all of the sentences for those on death row — some of the most despicable, heinous crimes that they've committed — it is a slap in the face to those families that really want justice for their loved ones that they lost," McGary states.
Newsom has a record of going soft when it comes to crime. When he first entered office in 2019, he issued a moratorium of the death penalty. He was also against a 2024 ballot measure, Proposition 36, that increased criminal penalties for repeated theft and drug offenses. He has also gone out of his way to hinder Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations against illegal immigrants.
There has been speculation on whether Newsom will throw his hat in the presidential race.
Fox recently reported that Newsom will announce his plans on whether he is making a bid in January, around the time he leaves office.
McGary says clearly this is all about 2028. Newsom is "playing to the base" of the Democratic Party, he believes, and he wants to run for president or join the ticket as the vice president.
"And he thinks that he can carry the bacon, if you will, for the state and all other blue states as a VP on a ticket," McGary said. "I think he's right because everybody, who is a diehard leftist progressive Democrat, do have a mind virus, and people like Gavin Newsom, they see potential there."
