California Death Penalty Showdown: Becerra, Newsom & the Will of the Voters

California’s death penalty is once again at the center of a major political and constitutional fight.

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra says that, if elected, he would extend Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on executions. Becerra’s position is notable because, while serving as California attorney general, he previously expressed support for capital punishment and his office defended death sentences.

In this episode of Left Coast News, we examine California’s long-running battle over the death penalty, executive power, the initiative process, victims’ rights, and the role of voters in determining state law.

California voters rejected Proposition 34 in 2012, which would have abolished the death penalty. In 2016, voters rejected Proposition 62, another effort to abolish capital punishment, while approving Proposition 66, which sought to change procedures governing death-penalty appeals.

Then, in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order establishing a moratorium on executions, withdrawing California’s lethal-injection protocol and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin. The order did not overturn existing convictions or death sentences.

Now Becerra says he would continue the moratorium if elected governor. That raises a larger debate extending well beyond capital punishment: How should executive authority interact with laws and policies previously approved by voters?

We break down Becerra’s record, Newsom’s executive order, California’s ballot-box history on capital punishment, and the competing arguments surrounding justice, constitutional government, public safety and the rights of crime victims.

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