BREAKING: Gavin Newsom commutes ALL death sentences for California's 548 death row inmates

His letter reads:

“To All Californians:

“I have decided to exercise my constitutional clemency authority to commute all California death sentences to life without the possibility of parole.

“After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish. I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us. I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.

“My decision today comes after nearly three decades of openly opposing state-sanctioned executions as an elected official. Soon after taking office as Governor of California, on March 13, 2019, I instituted a moratorium on executions. I could not remain true to my values and oversee the killing of people with death warrants in California. My action formalized the de facto moratorium on executions in place since 2006, the last year California executed anyone. While the moratorium has prevented any further executions, it left all death sentences in place. The 548 people now under sentence of death in California make up the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.

“The people sentenced to death in California caused indescribable suffering to victims, their families, communities, and our state as a whole. The harm they inflicted persists across generations. Many Californians feel that those who commit brutal crimes deserve to die. But as Governor, I have concluded the state cannot morally kill them. I do, however, pray that this action will finally separate the memories of the victims of these crimes from the fate of those who harmed them. We can now let these offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honor their victims.”

Newsom’s term as governor comes to an end this year and he is widely believed to be preparing a presidential run. Death penalty opponents are planning to launch an add lauding his commutations of these sentences. Those who have been convicted and sentenced to death are guilty of the most horrific crimes known to mankind. The murder of children, serial killers, men who have tortured and raped before killing, and others. It is to these, and not the victims’ families, that Newsom is showing mercy.