Governor Gavin Newsom is calling the federal government's decision to reinstate capital punishment "unjust, unfair and immoral."
"Equal justice doesn't exist in our death penalty system," Newsom wrote on Twitter Thursday. "The disparities for people of color are insanely high. You’re better off if you’re rich and guilty, than if you’re poor and innocent. It’s unjust. Unfair. Immoral. We need an end to this system — not a resurrection."
On Thursday, the Justice Department announced that Attorney General William Barr had ordered the federal government to resume executing federal death row inmates, nearly two decades after the last execution overseen by the federal government.
“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Barr said in a statement. “Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding.”
"The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system," he added.
The executions of five inmates convicted of murder and other crimes have been scheduled to take place in December 2019 and January 2020 at the U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, in Terre Haute, Indiana. The five prisoners were identified as Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell,Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois, and Dustin Lee Honken. The Justice Department provided a rundown of each prisoner and the crimes they'd been convicted of in the release. Each of the inmates had "exhausted their appellate and post-conviction remedies, and currently no legal impediments prevent their executions."
Newsom said you're better off if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent.
"I see America has chosen to join North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, and Russia’s Putin in executing its citizens... continuing the trend of “strengthening” our ties with these liberal democratic leaders!" Newsom wrote.
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