California Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce Wednesday morning that he will take executive action to impose a moratorium on the execution of 737 death row inmates in the state. Newsom's order will last as long as he is governor.
Further details about the governor's proposal is expected to be revealed at a news conference 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
California has not executed an inmate since 2006, when Clarence Ray Allen was executed by lethal injection for the murders of three people. A series of legal challenges to the method of execution has prevented the state from carrying out any additional executions. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records show at least 737 inmates on are currently on death row, 24 of whom were convicted of murder and have exhausted all their appeals.
In 2016, voters in California rejected a ballot proposition that would have repealed the use of the death penalty in California, a measure Newsom supported as Lt. Gov. A second proposition that expedited the appeal process was also passed by voters in the same year.
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