On Jan. 17, 2006, at 12:38 a.m., the state of California executed Allen, 76, by lethal injection inside San Quentin State Prison. He had been convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and was sentenced to death in 1982.
According to the article, many argue that the death penalty deters capital crimes only marginally and costs the state billions of dollars to pursue. Those sentenced then spend years in a state of capital punishment stasis, waiting as their cases remain unresolved.
The article states that in 2019 Newsom signed an executive order placing a moratorium on the death penalty in California, ending the state’s lethal injection protocol and immediately closing the execution chamber at San Quentin.
In announcing the moratorium, Newsom said, “The intentional killing of another person is wrong, and, as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual.”
The article also notes that Newsom said the “death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” The Death Penalty Information Center has reported that the number of people on California’s death row has fallen below 600 for the first time in decades, due in part to the moratorium and to the high cost of pursuing death penalty cases.
Newsom has also said the death penalty system regularly discriminates against people who are mentally ill, Black and brown, or unable to afford legal representation. He has argued that the death penalty provides little to no public safety benefit, has no value as a deterrent and wastes billions of taxpayer dollars.
“Most of all, the death penalty is absolute,” Newsom said. “It’s irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error.” Despite this, according to the article, Newsom has not been clear about what steps he will take in the remaining months of his term to fully eliminate the death penalty as an option for prosecutors.
In 2020, Newsom filed an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court in support of a death row prisoner appealing a case involving allegations of racial bias. In the brief, Newsom wrote, “California’s capital punishment scheme is now, and always has been, infected by racism.”
According to the article, the state Constitution prohibits the governor from commuting the death sentence of a person with multiple felony convictions without approval from the California Supreme Court. To proceed, Newsom would need to signal his intent, and two-thirds of those currently on death row would require approval for commutation from the court.
Natasha Minsker, an attorney and consultant who spent 14 years at the American Civil Liberties Union and a decade as its director of death penalty policy, said, “It’s not simple. It’s not something he can just do on his last day in office.”
While support for the death penalty remains higher among Republicans than among Democrats and independents, the article notes that public opinion has been shifting in recent years.
In 2019, the article states, conservative legislators sponsored death penalty abolition bills in 11 states, including Wyoming, Montana and Kentucky. Conservatives have also played critical roles in efforts to repeal or reform capital punishment in states such as Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.
As the article concludes, California continues to spend billions of dollars on a death penalty system that remains largely frozen in place. The state maintains the costly infrastructure of death row for what many see as a symbolic punishment with little practical effect. Newsom’s past actions indicate deep opposition to capital punishment, and advocates argue he still has the authority to move California toward ending the death penalty permanently.
Source: davisvanguard.org, Staff, January 22, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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