Representatives from Catholic and other organizations opposed to the death penalty delivered six thousand signatures to California Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday asking him to commute the sentences of the hundreds of men and women on death row before he leaves office.
The effort, coordinated by the California Catholic Conference, involved delivering six thousand letters signed by individuals from around the state. A staff person in the governor’s office accepted the letters.
The CCC said in a statement that Gov. Brown “has an opportunity to address this appalling inequity in California’s justice system by commuting the sentences of many on death row to life imprisonment. He can grant clemency to many of the nearly 750 people sentenced to die in California, or he can issue an executive order halting executions.”
Let’s hope Gov. Brown hears these six thousand voices and grants clemency to these condemned men and women. It would be a signature accomplishment and would burnish his legacy.