Crimeupdated 19m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 5 August 2018Newsom Commutes 548 California Death Sentences to Life Without Parole
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Newsom commuted 548 death sentences to life without parole. Prosecutors criticize; vow to pursue court challenge statewide, potentially to Supreme Court.
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Newsom commutes 548
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday, November 5 that he would commute 548 death sentences in California to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Atlasinfo.
Newsom wrote in a letter that he took the measure because he firmly believes that state-decided executions are incompatible with California’s values, undermine the foundations of the legal system, and diminish us all.
Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams said the commutation changed Robert Bacon’s punishment from death to life in prison without parole, and she argued that “With the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has undermined the will of the people.”
Abrams said Bacon, 63, was the only person from Solano County on California’s death row, and she tied the case to a plot involving Deborah Sammons’ estranged husband, Charles Sammons, who enlisted Bacon to kill her.
California’s constitution requires the California Supreme Court’s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted more than once of a crime, and the Court must approve 382 of these commutations, about 70%.
Prosecutors plan court fight
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin told News Channel 3 that he is “in consultation with some of my colleagues around the state” and that district attorneys are looking at options for filing a case to get the commutations in front of the various courts and “hopefully eventually up to the Supreme Court.” Hestrin said Newsom acted “en masse” with “548 commutations with no individualized look,” and he added, “He’s not a king.”
Lisa Smittcamp called the decision “deeply troubling” and said the Governor disregards the will of the people who have voted repeatedly to retain the death penalty. Smittcamp said the 548 people on death row included 11 from Fresno County, and she described them as “murderers of children, multiple victims, calculated acts of violence and families who have spent decades seeking justice for their loved ones.”
What happens next
Prosecutors vowed to keep pursuing the death penalty in new cases, and Michael A. Hestrin said, “I’m going to continue to seek it when appropriate.”
The next person added to death row following the commutations might be Saul Arevalo, who was recently convicted in a triple murder case, and the jury voted for the death penalty while he waits for a judge to affirm that decision.
The California Supreme Court will have the final say on hundreds of these cases, and the Court must approve 382 commutations, about 70%, because of the state constitution’s clemency requirement for people convicted more than once of a crime.
Abrams argued that the governor’s decision violated the Victims’ Bill of Rights, passed by voters in 2008, and she said she “d[oes]n’t see anywhere in the governor’s Open Letter to Californians” that he reached out to families impacted by the decision.