1 minute
By Marcos Bretón
March 13, 2019
The death penalty is effectively dead in California thanks to an executive order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, and progressives across the nation are cheering.
... Personally, I would join in the cheering of Newsom if I weren't haunted by the heinous details of unspeakable crimes committed by some of the men spared by Newsom's pen and his flair for the dramatic.
Remember the victims? They received only passing mention from the governor after he announced his reprieve and, quite frankly, this is a weakness in the progressive movement - the inability to acknowledge that some convicted death row inmates really are guilty, some really did commit heinous acts. Some really aren't worthy of sanctification for the purposes of making anti-death penalty arguments.
... In California, fewer than 2 percent of murders becomes death penalty cases. They really are the worst of the worst. They really prove that evil lives in our world.
... But in making the principled argument, progressives too easily forget the people whose loved ones suffered and died at the hands of men who don't deserve to be viewed as a discriminated class without at least the acknowledgment of what they did to wind up on death row. ...
"Some people should get the punishment they deserve," said [Kent] Scheidegger [Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Foundation]
This is true. ... We're looking at progressive California in 2019, where victims don't have much standing unless we are talking about people shot and killed by police.
Read more here: https://bit.ly/2UB1lyx