The murder of Rob Reiner and his wife has revived discussion of the death penalty in California. Perhaps Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) can stop undermining California law and grow enough of a spine to make a decision on it one way or another.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced first-degree murder charges against Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, in the case. Those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty, which Hochman raised but said there had been no decision on as of yet. After entering office, Hochman reversed the county’s ban on prosecutors seeking the death penalty, which was put in place by his predecessor, pro-criminal “prosecutor” George Gascon.
Unfortunately, this does not mean much in California. The state does have the death penalty, and voters rejected a statewide ballot proposition in 2012 that would have repealed it. People can still be sentenced to death under California law, but Newsom, in 2019, in just his second month in office, issued an executive order freezing all executions in the state. Newsom claimed, among other things, that the death penalty was racist…