Politically eliminate those who blithely eliminate the death penalty, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom
Over the years, I have written periodically on the importance of the use of the death penalty in particularly heinous cases, including those of First Degree murder and mass murders.
In one of those pieces, I co-authored with State’s Attorney for Baltimore County Scott D. Shellenberger a piece on the importance of keeping the death penalty for the “worst of the worst,” who have committed mass murder, murder of children, and other horrific crimes.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/
Maryland naively eliminated the death penalty in 2013. And in 2015, Maryland’s then-Gov. Martin O’Malley commuted all such penalties to life sentences without parole.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has acted to commute the death sentences of all of those so facing such, subject only to the state’s compliant Supreme Court.
As Described by The Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom told the California Supreme Court on Thursday that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 state prisoners awaiting execution, reducing their punishments to life in prison without parole. Newsom can commute about 40% of the death sentences with the stroke of a pen, but the rest will require the high court’s approval in order to be finalized.”
Victims of loved ones killed by capital crime are generally outraged by the decision. But there are some that feel execution of their relatives’ murderers does not help them regardless. Typical of the former was the mother of an officer killed by a cop-killer.
The Times quotes Phyllis Loya, whose son, Larry Lasater, a police officer in Pittsburg, Calif., was killed in the line of duty by a man who was sentenced to death: “[Newsom] has a heart for criminals, I don’t think he has a heart for victims…he doesn’t care about us.”
Included in Newsom’s Commutations-for-All-but-
https://www.latimes.com/
The Free Beacon weighed in with this further observation:
“Serial killers who received reprieves on Thursday include Randy Kraft, the “Scorecard Killer,” who was convicted of sexually assaulting, mutilating, and murdering 16 young men; William Suff, the “Riverside Prostitute Killer,” who murdered 12 women; Gerald Parker, the “Bedroom Basher,” who raped and murdered five women; Chester Dewayne Turner, a Los Angeles serial killer who raped, strangled, and murdered 14 women, including 1 who was pregnant…”
Gov. Newsom doesn’t care enough to consult with any official over this decision…he just feels for the murderers’ tender feelings. And he wants to make sure that not only poor people are executed. With this mass commutation, he can protect all murderers – those of children, adults, Blacks, Whites Jews, Gentiles – an equal opportunity murderer exculpation.
The Headline for Gov. Newsom: Gavin Newsom Acts in Loco Parentis
Thank goodness he can stop the mean population in California from further hurting nice people like those listed above and hundreds of others.
And in the future, murderers will be free to murder in whatever number and venue they wish. So they won’t have to disturb Gov. Newsom’s sleep. The victims may include police, prison guards, children…you name them.
Lord, I detest self-important autocrats. I hope BPE’s readers do too. And the nation will as well and not ever allow Newsom a presidential candidacy.
Richard E. Vatz https://wp.towson.edu/vatz/ is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of political rhetoric at Towson University and author of The Only Authentic of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (Bookwrights House, 2024) and over 200 other works, essays, lectures, and op-eds. He is the benefactor of the Richard E. Vatz Best Debater Award at Towson. The Van Bokkelen Auditorium at Towson University has been named after him.