DA Schubert Backs Victims' Mothers Over Execution Moratorium Outrage

Gov. Gavin Newsom's moratorium announcement on the death penalty has been met with due criticism after the victims' families express their outrage over injustice.

"See how you would feel in the end if you had to sit in court and listen that your child did not just get murdered," said Sandy Friend, the mother of Michael Lyons who was kidnapped and tortured by a violent sex offender in 1996. "He got tortured, stabbed repeatedly, up to 70 to 80 times. A 63-pound, little 8-year-old boy."

Friend told Fox 40 she believes the governor did not take victims' families into consideration.

"You have your own child, trade spots. Let me have my baby back," Friend said. "Let me have my Michael back and you put your son over there with Rhodes on that walk home from school. Let's put his son in Michael's place."

Other mothers of victims killed by inmates on death row are coming forward as well to share their grief.

"Prisoners rights are much more important that victim's rights and that's wrong," Phyllis Loya said. Two bank robbers shot and killed her 35-year-old deputy son as he chased them down.

Loya told Fox, since Gov. Newsom never met with them before Wednesday's announcement, she would ask him, "What more could my son have possibly have done for the citizens for the state of California, and more specifically for him, that would warrant justice not being ripped from him?"

Now, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert is stepping up and showing her support for the families, calling the moratorium "disgraceful."

Schubert said the governor "ignored the voice of the people who approved Proposition 66 to expedite executions."

"This is a Democracy. This is a system of justice where voters have decided that they want this and they want it fixed," Schubert said. "I'm not going to impose my own personal opinion and that's exactly what happened today."

Photo: Getty Images


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