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US-JUSTICE-EXECUTION-CALIFORNIA
California governor to impose moratorium on executions
LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – California Governor Gavin Newsom
will impose a moratorium Wednesday on carrying out the death penalty,
granting temporary reprieve to the 737 inmates on the state’s death row, the
largest in the United States.
“The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at
the very heart of what it means to be a Californian,” Newsom will say,
according to prepared remarks.
The governor plans to sign an executive order to block the death penalty
that will also withdraw California’s lethal injection protocol and close the
execution chamber at San Quentin prison, his office said.
It does not provide for the release of any death row inmates from prison.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0955 hrs