My Two Cents: California Governor Suspends the Death Penalty

I am staunchly anti-death penalty in every single case.

Every.Single.Case.

If murder is wrong, why is state sanctioned murder okay? I mean we don’t punish rapists by raping them, that would be savage, so why murder murderers? I am against it. And not just for ethical reasons, though they alone make me an anti-death penalty proponent, but for financial reasons.

If you sentence a person to death they have years, decades, really, of appeal after appeal, all paid for by We the People. But, sentence them to life, and many times the convicted won’t, or can’t appeal. It’s actually cheaper to sentence someone to life, then death.

I am not just spouting this randomly today, but because last week Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom suspended the death penalty in his state, saying that it is ineffective and cruel, and that he "will not oversee the execution of any individual." He signed an executive granting reprieves to all 737 Californians awaiting executions—a quarter of the country's death row inmates:

"Our death penalty system has been—by any measure—a failure. The intentional killing of another person is wrong. And as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual."

And Newsom did that despite the fact that three years ago, California voters rejected an initiative to end the death penalty and instead voted to speed up executions.

Why, you ask, did he do that? Well, Newsom says, and rightly so, that the death penalty system has discriminated against mentally ill defendants and, especially, people of color, and yet hasn’t made California any safer, and is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

But those aren’t the only reasons, though judicial racism, stricter sentences, harsher punishments, for people of color should be reason alone, but what about the innocent who are jailed, or even put to death?

If even one person is put to death who is innocent, and proven innocent, that’s too many. We the People have murdered an innocent person. That is intolerable.

There are people who believe that the death penalty gives the victim’s families and loved one’s closure, but does it, really? Sticking a needle in the arm of a convicted murderer suddenly erases the pain for the survivors? I don’t think that’s true.

You may ask if, goddess forbid, someone murdered someone I love, Carlos perhaps, would my opinion change. The hard answer is No; putting to death a murderer would not bring Carlos back to me and killing someone would not give me pleasure or closure. I would still be living a life without someone I love and murder won’t ever change that.

And so, I know there are some who have no moral objection to the death penalty, and even some who believe it’s a deterrent, or somehow just, but refusing to care about its racist application, its use on people with mental illness, people with cognitive disabilities is neither just nor moral.

Killing innocent people isn't justice.  And my mind will never change on that.

I remember at the sentencing hearing for Aaron McKinney, who along with Russell Henderson, murdered Matthew Shepard. Henderson pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he was given two consecutive life sentences. 

The jury, having found McKinney guilty of felony murder, began to deliberate on the death penalty, until Mathew Shepard's parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

In court, after the deal was struck, Dennis Shepard told McKinney the sentence means:

“You won’t be a symbol. No years of publicity, no chance of commutation, no nothing—just a miserable future and a miserable end. It works for me …. Mr. McKinney, I give you life in the memory of one who no longer lives. May you have a long life, and may you thank Matthew every day for it.”

I think that’s punishment. If Aaron McKinney had been put to death he’d be seen by bigots and homophobes as having died because he believed being gay was wrong, that if a gay man somehow comes on to you, murder is acceptable. But lock Aaron McKinney up, for life, with no chance at all of ever being free, and he will wake up each morning, and go to bed each night, knowing that he’s there because of what he did to Matthew Shepard.

That, as Dennis Shepard said, works for me. And I thank Governor Newsom for standing up against this barbaric misuse of justice.

But that’s just me.