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Gavin Newsom commutes more than 500 death sentences in California (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 16 hours ago* by to c/news@lemmy.world
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Democrat’s move prevents these people from executions under future governors, after Christa Pike’s failed execution

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has commuted the death sentences of more than 500 people on the state’s death row on Thursday, a move that ensures they can never be executed under future administrations.

The Democrat’s mass commutation at the end of his term has converted all of the state’s death sentences to life without the possibility of parole, the largest clearing of any US death row in modern history.

The move comes after the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee sparked global outrage and renewed calls for a nationwide pause on capital punishment.

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[–] 5 points 6 hours ago

This appears to a pretty rare case of Newsome doing something he sincerly believes in. His advisors were telling him not to do this because it polled poorly among general election voters in the US. This is also something that he has fairly consistantly done. After a ballot initiative passed to speed up executions and the court challenges expired he issued a morratorium on executions and took the state execution chamber apart.

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