Breaking News: Christa Pike is still alive after two doses of lethal injection drugs were administered by Tennessee officials. Her attorneys report that she is in critical condition and receiving life-saving care at a hospital.

Entries tagged with “Rob Bonta”

Aug 31, 2026

California’s Landmark Racial Bias Challenge to the Death Penalty Moves Forward

A first-of-its-kind lawsuit challenging California’s death penalty on systemic racial grounds has cleared an initial hurdle at the California Supreme Court and is now headed to an evidentiary hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, according to reporting from the Washington Post. The suit, filed by the ACLU, the Legal Defense Fund, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Equal Justice Society, and the Office of the State Public Defender, argues that California’s capital punishment statute is…

Issues

Apr 10, 2024

Lawsuit Filed at the California Supreme Court Alleges Racist Application of the Death Penalty Violates the State Constitution

On April 9, 2024, the California Office of the State Public Defender, along with several civil rights groups, filed an extraordinary writ petition at the California Supreme Court arguing that the state’s capital punishment system violates the state’s Constitution because of its racially biased implementation. In 2021, the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code confirmed that racial bias is entrenched in the state’s death penalty system. “The California Constitution does not permit a…

Issues

Nov 23, 2021

California Penal Code Committee Recommends Repealing State’s Death Penalty

The Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, created by the California state legislature to review the state’s criminal laws, has issued a report unanimously recommending that the state repeal its death penalty. The six-member committee’s 39-page Death Penalty Report, released November 17, 2021, also offers intermediate recommendations for reducing the size of California’s nearly 700-person death row — the largest of any state in the country. “After a thorough examination, the Committee has…

Apr 01, 2021

Newsom Appoints Legislator Who Co-Authored Constitutional Amendment Against Death Penalty to be California’s Attorney General

California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Rob Bonta (pictured), a state legislator who co-authored a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban capital punishment, as California’s attorney general. Bonta fills the vacancy created by President Joe Biden’s appointment of former state attorney general Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In his March 24, 2021 announcement of the appointment, Newsom said Bonta “represents what makes California…