Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett joined other law enforcement leaders, elected officials and victims advocates from around the state Thursday as they held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento to challenge Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to clear Death Row. Newsom announced last week his intention to commute all 548 California death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Seven of those inmates committed their crimes in Shasta County. District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett points out that California voters rejected propositions to abolish the death penalty in 2012 and again in 2016. Bridgett says the Legislature has been attempting to make changes that would reduce “life without parole” sentences and make it possible for California’s worst offenders to eventually be released. The state’s last execution was in 2006, and a moratorium has been in place since 2019.
-Steve Gibson