California has by far the most people on death row (737) of any state in the U.S. Legal problems with lethal injection have prevented executions for a while. Unfortunately, California’s voters recently passed an initiative that intends to move ahead with more executions.
But on March 13, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium that will prevent any executions from occurring while he is California’s Governor. The death penalty law remains in place — and prosecutors may continue to bring more death penalty cases forward — but executions will be prevented during his term of office.
He said, “Our death penalty system has been — by any measure — a failure.
Here are links to more information:
The article at this link provides information: https://theintercept.com/2019/03/13/california-death-penalty-moratorium/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a33a6449-4cbb-4f1c-8384-91e79c416425
Here is another article about California’s moratorium: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/california-governor-announces-reprieve-for-the-states-737-death-row-inmates/?utm_source=mj-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=political-mojo-2019-03-15
California’s anti-death penalty organization, Death Penalty Focus (www.deathpenalty.org) has information at several parts of their website. See https://deathpenalty.org/ The organization agreed with Gov. Newsom when he said that California’s death penalty system “has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation.” The organization also emphasized that Gov. Newsom was right that “the intentional killing of another person is wrong,” and when he pledged that “as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual.”
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (www.ncadp.org) applauded this good news. NCADP works nationwide to abolish the death penalty.