Make California Post a Preferred Source California has 564 inmates under death sentences — and gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra is weighing in on the state’s death penalty after Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike.
Notorious criminals such as Scott Peterson — convicted in 2004 of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant — and serial killer Charles Ng, who was convicted of 11 first-degree murders, were among the condemned in the Golden State.
Peterson, however, had his death sentence overturned in 2020 and was resentenced to life without parole.
Scrutiny on the death penalty resurfaced after Pike’s scheduled execution went horribly wrong Wednesday. She was rushed to the hospital after the Tennessee Department of Corrections administered two doses of the highly potent sedative, Pentobarbital, but it failed to kill her.
“Christa is critically ill but not in a coma as I understand it,” her lawyer told TMZ, adding she was still unconscious as of Thursday afternoon.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she beat, slashed and bludgeoned to death in Knoxville, Tennessee.
When asked about his stance on the death penalty following the Pike debacle, a Becerra campaign spokesperson referred the California Post Thursday to a tweet from May where he praised Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on executions.
“Governor Newsom’s death penalty moratorium represented an important step toward a more just criminal justice system,” the candidate said.
“As Governor, I will extend California’s moratorium on executions and continue moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”
California has not carried out an execution since 2006, even though it houses the nation’s largest death row population. Newsom put a moratorium on executions in 2019.
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Newsom’s office reiterated its death policy stance after the Pike situation in an email to The Post. The governor criticized the death penalty as discriminatory and money-wasting when he signed the executive order pausing executions.
“Governor Newsom has been clear about his position on the death penalty since his first year in office, when he ordered a moratorium on executions,” his office said.
Becerra’s Republican Steve Hilton, said that while he’s personally against the death penalty, he would not extend the moratorium after voters previously showed favor for the death penalty.
California voters voted against Proposition 62, which sought to abolish the death penalty in November 2016. Instead, they approved Proposition 66, which was meant to speed up the execution process.
“I don’t think it’s OK for a governor to just substitute their personal opinion on an issue where the voters had an explicit and direct say,” Hilton told the Los Angeles Times.
Despite the moratorium, prosecutors in California are still able to seek the death penalty. More than 200 people have received a death sentence in California since the last execution in 2006, CalMatters reported.
