‘Wrong.’ California Democrats decry return of federal death penalty
California’s top Democrats took to social media Thursday to condemn the Attorney General William Barr’s decision to lift a 20-year moratorium on the federal death penalty.
Among the critics to decry the move were both of California’s senators, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Kamala Harris, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom, who earlier this year ordered a moratorium on in-state executions, tweeted that “We need an end to this system — not a resurrection.”
Harris called capital punishment “immoral and deeply flawed,” while Feinstein said that “the decision by this administration to resume the federal death penalty after a nearly two-decade hiatus is wrong.”
Lee pointed out that the death penalty overwhelmingly is used against people of color, and she called it “a racist and error-prone practice that doesn’t deter crime.”
California’s Republican lawmakers stayed silent on the subject of the death penalty as of Thursday morning.
This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 10:47 AM with the headline "‘Wrong.’ California Democrats decry return of federal death penalty."
