Newsom At Odds With Most Americans On The Death Penalty
A new Pew survey finds two-thirds of Americans support capital punishment for murder. Gavin Newsom decided years ago that California voters shouldn’t get their way.
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⏱️ 6 min read
Most Americans Still Support The Death Penalty
Every once in a while, a new poll reminds us just how far some progressive politicians have moved from the American public. The death penalty is one of those issues.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 66% of Americans favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder. Just 32% oppose it. That isn’t a close call. It’s two-to-one.
Thirty percent of Americans strongly favor the death penalty, while just 13% strongly oppose it. Support is also up six points from Pew’s 2021 survey.
Which brings us to Gavin Newsom.
California’s governor doesn’t just disagree with most Americans on capital punishment. He decided years ago that when California voters disagreed with him, their decision wasn’t going to matter very much.
Welcome to another chapter in the continuing adventures of King Gavin.
California voters had a direct opportunity in 2016 to abolish the death penalty. Proposition 62 would have repealed capital punishment and replaced existing death sentences with life imprisonment without parole. They voted no.
On the same ballot, Californians approved Proposition 66, which retained the death penalty while trying to speed up the appeals process. Then Gavin Newsom became governor.
Barely two months after taking office in 2019, Newsom issued an executive order declaring a statewide moratorium on executions. He couldn’t repeal the death penalty, so he did the next best thing.
He announced that while he was governor, California simply wouldn’t carry it out.
Below the paywall, we’ll look at exactly what Newsom ordered, what California voters had already decided, why his complaints about Donald Trump’s “authoritarianism” make this episode particularly rich, and some surprising findings buried inside the new Pew numbers.
What California voters actually decided on the death penalty.
The remarkable sentence Newsom put into his own executive order.
How Newsom dismantled Death Row and remade San Quentin around rehabilitation.
Why Newsom’s complaints about presidential “authoritarianism” invite an obvious comparison.
The surprising number of Democrats who still support capital punishment.
What Americans think about deterrence, innocence and the morality of execution.
