Gavin Newsom in Ballotpedia.org political website

On Crime: Moratorium on the California death penalty

Proposition 62, Repeal of the Death Penalty, was on the Nov. 8, 2016, ballot in California as an initiated state statute. It was defeated.
• A "yes" vote supported repealing the death penalty and making life without the possibility of parole the maximum punishment for murder.
• A "no" vote opposed this measure repealing the death penalty.
• On March 13, 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order placing a moratorium on the death penalty. He said, "The intentional killing of another person is wrong and as Governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual. Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure. It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can't afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Most of all, the death penalty is absolute. It's irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error."