One Month Later, Strong Emotions About California’s Execution Moratorium

One month into California’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, the his­toric action by Governor Gavin Newsom (pic­tured) is draw­ing high praise from exonerees, mixed reviews from vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, and unusu­al­ly per­son­al con­dem­na­tion from political adversaries. 

Kirk Bloodsworth ­— the first for­mer death-row pris­on­er exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence — wrote that he was ​“thrilled” by the news of the mora­to­ri­um. Bloodsworth, the inter­im exec­u­tive direc­tor of the death-row exonerees’ orga­ni­za­tion, Witness to Innocence, said the mora­to­ri­um would pre­vent the ​“unfor­giv­able and grave mis­take” of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. Beth Webb — whose sis­ter and a close friend were killed and whose moth­er was wound­ed in the dead­liest mass shoot­ing in Orange County his­to­ry — said she ​“could not be proud­er to have Gov. Gavin Newsom stand­ing with me and oth­er loved ones of vic­tims for whom the death penal­ty has cre­at­ed years of pro­longed pain and suf­fer­ing rather than any sense of jus­tice.” At the same time, sev­er­al California dis­trict attor­neys staged a press con­fer­ence with fam­i­ly mem­bers of oth­er vic­tims to denounce Newsom and the mora­to­ri­um, and four pros­e­cu­tors authored a CNN op-ed accus­ing the gov­er­nor of ignor­ing vic­tims and ​“sin­gle­hand­ed­ly under­min­ing” California’s democratic government.

At an April 11 press con­fer­ence in Sacramento the day after pros­e­cu­tors announced they would seek the death penal­ty against Joseph DeAngelo — linked by DNA to at least 13 mur­ders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s — Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said ​“Governor Newsom took a knife and stabbed all the vic­tims and all the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies in the heart.” Ron Harrington — whose broth­er was mur­dered and sis­ter-in-law was raped and mur­dered — called the accused Golden State Killer ​“the worst of the worst of the worst ever. He is the poster child for the death penal­ty,” Harrington said. In their CNN op-ed, District Attorneys Anne Marie Schubert of Sacramento County, Michael Hestrin of Riverside County, Lisa Smittcamp of Fresno County, and Gilbert Otero of Imperial County derid­ed the mora­to­ri­um order as ​“a slap in the face to crime vic­tims and their fam­i­lies” and an ​“auto­crat­ic decree [that was] a dis­grace­ful day for democracy.”

In an op-ed in the Mercury News, Bloodsworth called the mora­to­ri­um nec­es­sary to address California’s ​“long his­to­ry of wrong­ful con­vic­tions.” He wrote that, “[s]ince 1989, 191 men and women have been exon­er­at­ed of seri­ous crimes in California. And since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in the state, five men have been released from death row.” Those wrong­ful con­vic­tions, he said, had been caused by ​“wit­ness misiden­ti­fi­ca­tion, the use of junk sci­ence, false infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny, mis­con­duct by police or pros­e­cu­tors, and false con­fes­sions,” with mul­ti­ple caus­es often present in each case. 

In an April 28, 2019 op-ed in the Orange County Register, Webb described how years of delib­er­ate mis­con­duct by Orange County sher­iffs and pros­e­cu­tors forced local courts to bar the death penal­ty for con­vict­ed mass mur­der­er Scott Dekraai. ​“From the begin­ning, it was clear the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s office were so focused on pur­su­ing the death penal­ty that they were will­ing to cheat, with­hold evi­dence and even lie on the stand” to stonewall the inves­ti­ga­tion of a mul­ti-decade scan­dal involv­ing the delib­er­ate mis­use of prison infor­mants. ​“Because of the way some overzeal­ous pros­e­cu­tors pur­sue the death penal­ty at all costs, this case that should have been quick­ly con­clud­ed dragged on for six years, sub­ject­ing me, my fam­i­ly and the loved ones of the oth­er vic­tims to unimag­in­able pain,” Webb said. She also warned of ​“anoth­er, insid­i­ous, evil of the death penal­ty… [, that] it is wield­ed as a tool to score polit­i­cal points by an increas­ing­ly small group of prosecutors.”

Newsom’s mora­to­ri­um order also drew sup­port from six for­mer gov­er­nors who had grant­ed clemen­cy, imposed mora­to­ria, or end­ed the death penal­ty in their states. In a blog post, Governors Richard Celeste, John Kitzhaber, Martin O’Malley, Bill Richardson, Pat Quinn and Toney Anaya wrote that Newsom’s action ​“took great courage, and the abil­i­ty to see that his state’s death row … exem­pli­fied just how bro­ken the sys­tem is.” The for­mer gov­er­nors praised Newsom for rec­og­niz­ing that ​“inac­tion isn’t an option” and assured Newsom that ​“he isn’t alone.”