Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to commute hundreds of death row sentences surprised and angered some victims’ families, and drew widely mixed responses from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
The move would reduce the sentences of 548 inmates from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the California Supreme Court, which has to approve granting clemency to anyone convicted of multiple felonies, will have the final say in many of the cases.
‘I didn’t expect it’
Steve Herr’s son, Samuel Herr, was killed in Orange County by condemned murderer Daniel Wozniak in 2010. Wozniak killed Samuel Herr and Juri “Julie” Kibuishi as part of a plan to fund his own wedding.
Herr said learned of the commutations on Thursday from a reporter. He described his immediate reaction as “anger, immense anger.” Herr said he expected that Newsom’s successor, Governor-elect Xavier Becerra, would extend the death penalty moratorium, but did not expect the commutation that means his son’s killer will never face the death penalty.
“I’m just so fed up,” Herr added. “I didn’t expect this. I’m not surprised by it. But I didn’t expect it.”
Herr said that by commuting all the cases and not deciding them individually, Newsom was a “coward” who “didn’t have the guts to at least take this case-by-case and address the families personally.”
He also noted that state voters in 2016 rejected a ballot measure that would have repealed the death penalty.
“Not only did Newsom overrule the verdict (in Wozniak’s case), he overruled the judge, he overruled the jury — 12 people from diverse backgrounds,” Herr said. “Then he overrules the court of appeal and the Supreme Court of California. And, finally, he overrules the will of the people.”
‘This needs to be scrutnized’
The California District Attorneys Association denounced Newsom’s decision, saying he didn’t give prosecutors or victims’ families advance notice or an opportunity for their thoughts to be heard.
“These families have endured unimaginable loss, participated in years of court proceedings and placed their faith in our justice system,” Greg Totten, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “They deserved more than learning through a public announcement that the sentences imposed on their loved ones’ killers were being overturned.”
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also criticized the decision in their own statements, saying Newsom disregarded decisions by juries and judges and the work of prosecutors by commuting the sentences of every person on death row and failed to give notice to victims’ families.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who announced last year that he would again allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty, undoing the work of his predecessor George Gascón, said Newsom’s decision doesn’t impact the law and that his office will continue to review death penalty-eligible cases “with the rigor, care and restraint these decisions demand.”
Anderson said district attorneys in the state are coordinating a response to the sentence commutations.
“We are going to significantly test this process,” he said. “This needs to be scrutinized.”
‘The death penalty is cruel, irreversible’
Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo D. Garcia, who traveled to Sacramento in June to call for universal clemency, celebrated Newsom’s decision as a step toward a fairer justice system.
The death penalty, he said, hurts taxpayers and doesn’t make communities safer.
“The death penalty is cruel, irreversible, and stained by systemic racism,” Garcia said in a statement. “It falls hardest on people of color and the poor, and has condemned innocent people.”
Scott Sanders, a former Orange County public defender who represented Wozniak and other defendants who faced the death penalty, described the commutations decision as “a remarkable day in the evolution of the death penalty in California and this nation …
“There is unquestionably a shockwave and sense of enormous relief that immediately spread today throughout the community of defendants, their families, defense attorneys and those members of the community who have fought tirelessly on this issue,” Sanders said.
“While most of us fully appreciate why victims and family members believe the only justice and closure comes at the moment of execution, for those who had loved ones sentenced to death, the often-decades of waiting for that potential execution carries its own destructive cost,” he added.
Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defenders Association, said the organization applauds Newsom’s decision. Death sentences, she said, indiscriminately impact poorer individuals, many of whom can’t afford representation and need public defenders. Whether someone faces capital punishment also depends on where they’re charged and how likely prosecutors in that area are to pursue the death penalty, Chatfield said.
Not every family member who lost a victim necessarily favors the death penalty.
Vivian Najera-Reed, whose nephew Daniel Najera, died while fighting the Esperanza fire in October 2006, said she understands how Newsom’s decision could bring pain to the families of victims, but Najera-Reed said she didn’t want to see Raymond Lee Oyler, the main convicted of arson and five counts of murder, die.
“My prayer for Raymond is that he truly repents before God, finds his way to genuine remorse, and receives salvation,” Najera-Reed said. “I do not wish him harm. I believe accountability and forgiveness can exist without wishing someone dead.”
‘You want people to serve on juries’
For Jon Shultz, whose wife Pam Shultz was once engaged to Manhattan Beach Police Officer Martin Ganz before he was murdered in December 1993, Newsom’s decision feels a bit inconsequential. Years ago, Jon Shultz said his wife came to terms with the idea her former fiancé’s killer, Roger Hoan Brady, wouldn’t be killed in her lifetime, despite his death sentence.
Jon Shultz said he feels the best sentence for a convicted murderer would be to “sit in a cell and lose every last minute of their freedom,” but he also believes Brady deserved the sentence that a jury decided for him and feels that Newsom’s decision overrides their efforts.
Shultz said he worries that actions like Newsom’s could further discourage citizens from participating in jury duty.
“It really bothers me that he’s discarded the juries’ wishes in a country where you want people to serve on juries,” he said.
Gov. Newsom’s death row commutations include 47 condemned killers from OC