Newsom wants to empty death row.
asserted
Newsom → want → row
Most politicians wouldn’t bother — or dare
-
- Newsom said he will commute the death sentences of the 548 condemned men and women in California.
asserted
he → bother → California
They would serve life without the possibility of parole.
asserted
They → serve → parole
- Expect critics to say he is circumventing the will of the people and disrespecting crime victims and juries.
asserted
he → expect → victims
It’s especially difficult and fraught for a politician such as Gavin Newsom, who has Oval Office ambitions and everything to lose from a misstep.
asserted
who → ’ → misstep
Playing it safe is playing it smart.
asserted
Playing → play → it
On Thursday, Newsom took what can only be described as a courageous stand, a risky stand — commuting the death sentences of the 548 men and women condemned to die in California, and instead seeking to change their sentences to life without parole.
asserted
what → take → parole
Many people will stop reading right now because honestly, do you care what happens to those on death row?
asserted
what → stop → row
They’ve raped, murdered, robbed, tortured — you name the heinous crime, one of them has done it.
asserted
one → rap → it
They are not the most sympathetic lot, and in truth many of us have ambivalent feelings on the death penalty.
asserted
many → have → penalty
It’s that ambivalence, that uncertainty, that makes Newsom’s move so interesting.
asserted
move → ’ → ?
We are in the most unlikely of moments — witnessing a self-inflicted test of political endurance from a savvy politician who didn’t need to go there.
asserted
who → witness → politician
What happens in these strange days when a presidential hopeful takes an unnecessary risk simply because he believes it’s the right thing to do?
asserted
it → happen → risk
Newsom will be roasted by those claiming to be tough-on-crime types.
asserted
Newsom → roast → crime
They will predictably cry that he is circumventing the will of the people and disrespecting crime victims and juries.
asserted
he → cry → victims
Some will say he cares more about criminals than victims.
asserted
he → say → victims
Fox News is going to have a field day.
asserted
News → go → day
Under President Trump, the federal government is increasingly normalizing death and corruption as tools of state power.
asserted
government → normalize → power
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has a unique ability to send a different message.
asserted
Newsom → have → message
Newsom has publicly pondered this decision for some time, calling it a “rocking chair” choice, one he’s likely to look back on someday to judge whether he lived up to his own ideals.
asserted
he → ponder → ideals
He has said he is morally opposed to the state killing to prove killing is bad.
asserted
killing → say → ?
As he terms out of office, he had only a couple months left to take action on that belief before the power to end the largest death row in the Western hemisphere slips out of his hands.
asserted
power → term → hands
“Faithfulness to our values is measured by how we act when its most difficult to uphold them,” Newsom wrote in a letter to Californians announcing his decision.
asserted
Newsom → measure → decision
This, he said, was one of those moments for him.
asserted
he → say → him
“Americans are looking for leadership that is more principled,” civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson told me, arguing Newsom’s move is actually in sync with the electorate.
asserted
move → look → electorate
Stevenson is one of the people Newsom has talked to about the death penalty, and the founder of The Legacy Museum in Alabama, which traces the line from slavery to mass incarceration.
asserted
which → talk → incarceration
The shocking blue-wave midterms showed that Americans aren’t just tired of cruelty for cruelty’s sake, he said.
asserted
he → show → sake
They are tired of injustice, tired of selfish, self-serving leaders, tired of fearing that their own government might crush them simply because it can.
uncertain
it → serve → them
Across the country, voters elected political leaders who stood for something — who bucked the trends to run on their values and vision of a better America, even if it wasn’t mainstream or safe.
asserted
it → elect → America
So whether Americans agree with Newsom’s decision to commute these sentences to life without parole or not, voters are at a moment when I suspect, like Stevenson does, that they may embrace his courage to stand for something, even if they don’t agree with what that something is.
uncertain
something → agree → something
The death penalty is the ultimate expression of that power of government to crush.
asserted
penalty → crush → government
Support for it has been mixed for years, even among liberals — though young people are less likely to back it.
asserted
people → back → it
It has been banned in nearly every Western democracy including almost all of Europe, Canada and New Zealand.
asserted
It → ban → Europe
Twenty-seven U.S. states have either abolished it or have gubernatorial moratoriums on it (Newsom enacted one in California a few years ago).
asserted
Newsom → abolish → California
And Biden commuted the death sentences of most federal inmates in his final days of office, as have several other governors over the years.
asserted
governors → commute → years
There has also been a growing understanding in the U.S. that race bias is baked into how we use the death penalty.
asserted
we → grow → penalty
Black and brown people make up the majority of those on death row, and crimes where the victim is white are more likely to draw the death sentence — even when we get it wrong.
asserted
it → make → sentence
More than 200 people on death row have been exonerated across the United States since the 1970s — including eight in California — meaning that for every eight people we have put to death, there has been one other who was going to be killed by the state until we figured out they were innocent.
asserted
they → exonerate → state
So while there’s a moral argument to be made against the state killing people to prove killing people is wrong, there’s also a practical one: It turns out we’re really bad at imposing a lethal sentence fairly, or even correctly.
asserted
we → ’ → sentence
After 25 years on death row, the justice system finally realized it had made a terrible error in his conviction.
asserted
it → realize → conviction
…and 33 more, not listed.
The Aporia
