00:00Do we have the right to kill? And I don't believe we do. We're better than that.
00:05California Governor Gavin Newsom is leaving office in January, but before he goes,
00:10he's making one of the biggest decisions of his political career. He's sparing the lives of all
00:15548 inmates on the state's death row. Newsom announced Thursday that he's commuting their
00:20sentences to life in prison without parole. It's the largest mass commutation of death
00:25sentences in modern American history. California has more inmates on death row than any other state
00:31in the country. Newsom explained his decision in an open letter to Californians. He wrote,
00:36State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations
00:42of our legal system, and diminishes each of us. I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect
00:47legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.
00:53Death penalty opponents are already rolling out a national ad campaign praising Newsom's decision.
00:59Gavin Newsom has just taken a historic step toward ending the death penalty.
01:05Do we have the right to kill? And I don't believe we do. We're better than that.
01:11But let's take a closer look at who's on California's death row. Richard Allen Davis,
01:16who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Closs, and Charles Ong, convicted of killing 11 people
01:22in the 1980s. Victims' families are divided. Some support Newsom's decision. Others are furious.
01:29And this isn't necessarily settled. More than half of the commutations require approval from
01:34California's Supreme Court. A victim's rights group also plans to sue. His successor,
01:39Javier Becerra, has pledged to keep the state's moratorium on executions.
01:44Illinois.
01:44Начesi masuk salutes
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