Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Newsom Does It Again With Death Row Reprieve
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
March 18, 2019

Share

Gavin Newsom is fond of making grandiloquent, headline-grabbing gestures couched in moralistic terms.

Opinion

Dan Walters
CALmatters Commentary

“I had no right to do this. We didn’t have the formal authority. But we tried to exercise our moral authority and challenge the laws.”Gov. Gavin Newsom

His tendency first surfaced in 2004 when, as the newly elected mayor of San Francisco, he directed officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of a state law passed by California voters just a few years earlier.

“I had no right to do this,” Newsom to an interviewer last year, when he was running for governor. “We didn’t have the formal authority. But we tried to exercise our moral authority and challenge the laws.”

Although his action was quickly slapped down by the courts, it made him a national political figure.

Last week, Newsom did it again, ordering reprieves for the more than 700 inhabitants of California’s death row and, in effect, launching a campaign to persuade California voters to overturn capital punishment.

That, like the same-sex marriage decree 15 years earlier, was well orchestrated for maximum media attention, including videos posted on Twitter and photos of San Quentin’s capital punishment chamber being dismantled.

His Opposition to Capital Punishment Was No Secret

Once again, Newsom is defying the demonstrated will of California voters, who twice in this decade rejected ballot measures that would have ended the death penalty—and if there’s a political price to be paid, it would be for that defiance.

Although his opposition to capital punishment was no secret, Newsom on several occasions had pledged to honor those two votes.

In a 2016 interview with the Modesto Bee’s editorial board, Newsom said he would “be accountable to the will of the voters” if elected governor. “I would not get my personal opinions in the way of the public’s right to make a determination of where they want to take us.”

While campaigning last year, Newsom said that while he was fervently opposed to the death penalty, he didn’t “want to get ahead of the will of the voters” and wanted to “give the voters a chance to reconsider.”

So last week’s action was definitely a flip-flop. He justified it by saying, “The will of the voters is also entrusted in me on the basis of my constitutional right” as governor to grant a reprieve to condemned prisoners.

“I’ve had to process this in a way I didn’t frankly anticipate …. A few months ago, it was an abstract question,” he told reporters. “Now, it’s a very real question,” he added, citing legal maneuvers over the state’s current mode of execution, lethal injection.

Jerry Brown Was No Less Opposed to Capital Punishment

There is a cogent argument to be made against capital punishment, even on non-moralistic grounds. It makes little sense to continue sending killers to death row if the state is to continue what has been a de facto moratorium on executions. None has been performed since 2006, two governors ago.

Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, was no less opposed to capital punishment, and it cost him politically during his first stint as governor, contributing to a failed 1982 bid for the U.S. Senate, which short-circuited his presidential ambitions.

However, despite its being a very blue state, California voters have twice declared their support for capital punishment. It’s somewhat unseemly for a governor to, in effect, thumb his nose at them, especially after pledging not to do so.

Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, was no less opposed to capital punishment, and it cost him politically during his first stint as governor, contributing to a failed 1982 bid for the U.S. Senate, which short-circuited his presidential ambitions.

During his second governorship, Brown bowed to capital punishment’s popularity and refused, despite pleas from death penalty opponents, to issue a blanket reprieve.

Newsom has set himself apart from Brown on several high-profile issues, and this is another. His gay marriage gesture in 2004 turned out to be a political plus, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. Morality aside, this is another political gamble.

CALmatters is a public-interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Chargers in Need of Help at Wide Receiver and Tight End in the NFL Draft

DON'T MISS

Magic Happens When Kids and Adults Learn to Swim. Tragedy Can Strike if They Don’t.

DON'T MISS

Big Fresno Fair Board Will Be Led by an American Sikh for 1st Time

DON'T MISS

AI ‘Friend’ for Public School Students Falls Flat

DON'T MISS

Is a ‘Friend-Apist’ What We Really Want From Therapy?

DON'T MISS

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Report US Strikes in the Capital and a Coastal City

DON'T MISS

Progressive Icon and Ex-US Rep. Barbara Lee Wins Race for Mayor of Oakland

DON'T MISS

Humanoid Robots Run a Chinese Half-Marathon Alongside Human Competitors

DON'T MISS

Bakersfield Push to Restore Kern River Seeks to Revitalize City

DON'T MISS

Anti-Trump Protesters Turn Out to Rallies Across Country

UP NEXT

I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future

UP NEXT

Why Is It So Expensive to Build Affordable Homes in CA? It Takes Too Long

UP NEXT

What Some Animals Endure Before We Eat Them

UP NEXT

Zakaria Warns of ‘Crony Capitalism’ in Trump’s Tariff Reversal

UP NEXT

How California Can Reduce High Concession Prices in Its Taxpayer-Funded Stadiums

UP NEXT

Why Palestinian Christians Feel Betrayed by American Christians

UP NEXT

Other States Do Housing Better Than California; a New Study Shows How They Do It

UP NEXT

Trump and Netanyahu Steer Toward an Ugly World, Together

UP NEXT

New Plan to Accelerate CA High-Speed Rail Construction Deserves Attention, Support

UP NEXT

Why Did So Many People Delude Themselves About Trump?

AI ‘Friend’ for Public School Students Falls Flat

18 hours ago

Is a ‘Friend-Apist’ What We Really Want From Therapy?

18 hours ago

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Report US Strikes in the Capital and a Coastal City

1 day ago

Progressive Icon and Ex-US Rep. Barbara Lee Wins Race for Mayor of Oakland

1 day ago

Humanoid Robots Run a Chinese Half-Marathon Alongside Human Competitors

1 day ago

Bakersfield Push to Restore Kern River Seeks to Revitalize City

1 day ago

Anti-Trump Protesters Turn Out to Rallies Across Country

1 day ago

Universal Studios Fan Fest 2025 to Feature Immersive D&D Attraction and More

2 days ago

Thousands Gather in London for Trans Rights Following UK Ruling Over Definition of Woman

2 days ago

250 Years After America Went to War for Independence, a Divided Nation Battles Over Its Legacy

2 days ago

Chargers in Need of Help at Wide Receiver and Tight End in the NFL Draft

EL SEGUNDO — In their first season together, Los Angeles Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz and coach Jim Harbaugh rebuilt the team enough ...

17 hours ago

17 hours ago

Chargers in Need of Help at Wide Receiver and Tight End in the NFL Draft

17 hours ago

Magic Happens When Kids and Adults Learn to Swim. Tragedy Can Strike if They Don’t.

17 hours ago

Big Fresno Fair Board Will Be Led by an American Sikh for 1st Time

18 hours ago

AI ‘Friend’ for Public School Students Falls Flat

18 hours ago

Is a ‘Friend-Apist’ What We Really Want From Therapy?

1 day ago

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Report US Strikes in the Capital and a Coastal City

1 day ago

Progressive Icon and Ex-US Rep. Barbara Lee Wins Race for Mayor of Oakland

1 day ago

Humanoid Robots Run a Chinese Half-Marathon Alongside Human Competitors

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend