Don’t let anyone deceive you about what Governor Gavin Newsom has done to the death penalty. One of SaveCalifornia.com’s jobs is to stand for truth and expose lies. In such a time as this, I hope this information will equip you to stand for what’s right in God’s sight.

When Newsom decreed that he alone could eliminate capital punishment in California, he was wrong before the voters, wrong before the California State Constitution and statutes, wrong before victims and victims’ families, and wrong before Creator God. Here’s why:

1.  Newsom is wrong before the voters: In 2016, Californians solidly defeated repealing the death penalty for murderers, and, at the same time, voted to speed up the legal appeals process for convicted murderers, to put them to death instead of forcing taxpayers to coddle them with room, board, and medical care until natural death. The California Constitution explicitly prohibits the State Legislature from changing or repealing initiatives passed by the voters (Article II, Section 10c). Nowhere does the State Constitution permit Governor Newsom to undo the vote of the people, but it specifically states that “The Governor shall see that the law is faithfully executed.” But since when did Newsom care about the vote of the people — on man-woman marriage, or on the death penalty, which he’s been trying to undo for years?

2. Newsom is wrong before the California State Constitution and the California Penal Code: The Governor’s constitutional power to reprieve (delay legal punishment), pardon (declare free from guilt or blame, and set free a convict), or commute (decrease the punishment given to the guilty) is only on an individual, case-by-case basis. Yet Newsom issued a broad “moratorium” on capital punishment, unconstitutionally “reprieving” the death penalty for 737 cold-hearted murderers.

By doing so, Newsom has violated the Constitution’s single-person restriction of Article V, Section 8:

SEC. 8.  (a) Subject to application procedures provided by statute, the Governor, on conditions the Governor deems proper, may grant a reprieve, pardon, and commutation, after sentence, except in case of impeachment. The Governor shall report to the Legislature each reprieve, pardon, and commutation granted, stating the pertinent facts and the reasons for granting it. The Governor may not grant a pardon or commutation to a person twice convicted of a felony except on recommendation of the Supreme Court, 4 judges concurring.

Newsom’s so-called “moratorium” — which he declared “shall be instituted in the form of a reprieve for all people sentenced to death in California” — is nowhere in the State Constitution or the State Penal Code. What’s more, Newsom’s blanket “reprieve” violates the California Constitution’s required process for a governor to change the sentence of any convict. Even former Governor Jerry Brown knew there was a process of application by a prison inmate that was required before a governor could grant a pardon or a commutation. Newsom calling his action “a reprieve” is his ‘s apparent attempt to wiggle around the specific processes for pardons of convicts and commutations of sentences.

The rules to be granted a pardon, commutation, or reprieve require that an convicted inmate not eligible for a Certificate of Rehabilitation must apply directly to the California governor’s office, and, if any are granted, the governor’s office must provide the California State Legislature with a report listing all granted pardons and the reasons they were granted. But Newsom disregarded all these laws. Shirking the law, and the reasonable justification that the law requires, he has imposed his personal dislike of the death penalty upon all of California, sending a very clear signal to teenage boys and young men that they indeed can get away with murder. We need a lawsuit against Newsom by victims’ families.

3. Newsom is wrong before victims and victims’ families:

Liberals don’t understand justice, but reasonable people do. People who know there’s still a difference between right and wrong know that if something you own is stolen from you, it must be returned or paid back. This includes money, property, and more. It includes when someone injuries you or leaves you physically disabled. And this “payback,” otherwise known as justice, certainly applies when an innocent person is murdered. This is why some people, who previously opposed the death penalty, support it once a family member is brutally murdered.

In the sentencing phase of murder trials, victims’ family members often have the opportunity to tell a jury about the loss and damage to their family. A book on this explains: “Thus far the most crucial (and the most institutionalized) role for co-victims is to provide testimony during the penalty phase of the trial. The legal community refers to this testimony as victim impact evidence (VIE), which is the only way for murder victims’ families to give information about the victim and tell how the murder has affected them personally.” 

Gavin Newsom siding with murderers — essentially making them “the victims” — is deeply hurtful to real victims’ families. Up and down California, parents, siblings, grandparents, and children of murder victims are speaking about the deep pain and renewed agony that Newsom’s unjust act has caused them:

Marc Klaas, father of Polly, who at age 12 was kidnapped and strangled before she could be raped
“He is advocating on behalf of pure evil. He is the champion of the death row inmate in California. Death row is filled with individuals who killed cops, women, babies, children.”

Maria Keever, whose 13-year-old son Charlie and his 9-year-old friend Jonathan were sadistically raped, tortured, and murdered
Keever said the decision disgusted her, and that Erskine got his wish. “That’s what he always wanted,” she said. “He wanted the death penalty off and he got it.”

Cindy Rael, mother of Brandi, who at age 34 was shot to death and then torched with fire
“There is one question I would like to ask the governor: What if it was his daughter who was brutally murdered?”

4. Newsom is wrong before Creator God: The criminal laws we live under are largely based on the Word of God in the Bible. God’s commands of “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” and “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” are the foundation of the Penal Codes of the United States and every state, including California. This why the Moses holding the Ten Commandments is depicted multiple times on the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

In a constitutional republic, murder is always wrong; in a pure democracy, it’s not. In our republic of the United States of America, our federal law is strongly against murder:

Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree.

And in murder convictions, federal law commands the death penalty, stating that convicted murderers “shall be sentenced to death.”

In California, the Penal Code likewise condemns murder, stating, “Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.” And the death penalty for murderers is still justified under California law, despite our state law making it optional:

“If the defendant has been found guilty of murder in the first degree, and a special circumstance has been charged and found to be true, or if the defendant may be subject to the death penalty after having been found guilty of violating subdivision (a) of Section 1672 of the Military and Veterans Code or Sections 37, 128, 219, or 4500 of this code, the trier of fact shall determine whether the penalty shall be death or confinement in state prison for a term of life without the possibility of parole.”

These laws requiring or permitting the death penalty for murder are a reflection and application of the pure morality of Creator God’s words in Scripture. The best Bible study I’ve seen on why murderers absolutely lose their right to life is “What does the Bible say about the death penalty?” It shows how “Jesus, Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Hebrews, Revelation, and an angel all give strong support for the death penalty.”

Among the Old Testament passages commanding the death penalty is Genesis 9:5-6:

“Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”

In Numbers 35:31-33, Creator God makes clear that the death penalty is not optional for murderers:

“Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.”

In the New Testament, Romans 13:4 makes it clear that good government executes murderers:

“For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”

Therefore, Gavin Newsom’s executive order taking the side of murderers is blatantly against the Word of God, which sides with the innocent and the vulnerable. Creator God gave the death penalty so that young men in particular would be afraid of ever murdering anyone and so that an untold number of would-be victims would be protected. God always makes a distinction between the innocent and the guilty, and so should we.

What can we conclude?

Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has declared himself “king,” and not under the People, the Constitution, or the written statutes.

Governor Newsom has taken the side of murderers, telling young men everywhere that yes, they will get away with murder.

Newsom is at war with Creator God, Who demands justice for bloodguilt by requiring authorities to execute convicted murderers.

It’s ironic that Newsom is siding with murderers (and you’re paying for their room and board and everything else with your taxpayer dollars), while Newsom’s doing everything in his power to kill “unwanted” babies in the womb, who have done no wrong and are completely innocent. Where’s the justice in this?

Ultimately, anyone against the death penalty for murderers doesn’t adequately love innocent human beings. Anyone who says the New Testament is against the death penalty is misinformed. Anyone who voted for Gavin Newsom is now indirectly pro-murderer.

Please share this important information with everyone you can. The People of California must know who’s right, and who’s dead wrong.