California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing more backlash from prosecutors over his bombshell decision Thursday to commute all 548 death-row inmates in California — but the sweeping move may not be the end of the story.
District attorneys across California were furious over the decision and began highlighting murder victims such as Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford, Kesha Gurke, college students who were killed in the late 1990s by Rex Allan Krebs, a paroled serial rapist.
Newhouse, for example, was bound by rope and raped in an abandoned cabin. Crawford, 20, was beaten unconscious and strangled. Gurke was punched so hard her intestines were severed.
“Governor Newsom just told the families of Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford, Kesha Gurke and every other innocent victim of California’s 548 condemned killers that the killers’ lives matter more,” Dan Dow, the district attorney for San Luis Obispo County, said in a statement posted to social media.
“Juries chose justice case by case, voters chose it five times, and one outgoing governor tried to erase it all with a pen,” the statement continued.
Dow’s office noted the Constitution bars commutations of anyone twice convicted of a felony, unless the California Supreme Court recommends it with four justices concurring.
Newsom himself acknowledged there may be limitations to his grand act. The state constitution, he noted, requires the California Supreme Court to review clemency grants for twice-convicted felons.
“While I am confident this act of categorical clemency is consistent with California law, I acknowledge that my decision to exercise my constitutional clemency authority requires the Justices to participate in a weighty decision they did not choose to take up and with which they may personally disagree,” Newsom said in his lengthy letter to the public.
“I profoundly appreciate the integrity and expertise the Court brings to the task of clemency review,” he added.
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Of the 548 on death row, those twice-convicted makes up a staggering 342 of them, said the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office.
The office said it has asked the supreme court justices to review each and every case on its own facts and hear from family members of victims.
“Clemency is an extraordinary power intended to provide relief when the facts and circumstances of an individual case justify it,” said Greg Totten, CEO of California District Attorneys Association, in a statement.
“It was never intended to serve as a substitute for the legislative process or to allow one elected official to effectively nullify hundreds of jury verdicts simply because he disagrees with the law. The Governor has turned an extraordinary constitutional safeguard into a sweeping instrument of personal policy.”
The press office for the state supreme court told The Post it had no comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, some victim advocacy groups are claiming such an unprecedented move may be legally questionable. Anne Marie Schubert, a former district attorney who now leads the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, told The Post her organization will bring a legal challenge.
“There’s going to be a number of arguments that we will make, but at the end of the day, we are doing this on behalf of crime victims and the rule of law,” she said.
