ENDING DEATH PENALTY: California Governor Gavin Newsom Ends Capital Punishment

Child murderers, rapists and serial killers who tortured their victims with everything from ice picks to a 4-foot twig are set to have their lives spared Wednesday -- until at least 2023 -- as California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs an executive order to halt death penalties in the state.

The controversial decision by the Democrat – which has drawn the ire of one of his adversaries, President Trump – was influenced by his belief that California’s death penalty system “has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation.”

Newsom, in prepared remarks he is expected to deliver Wednesday, also says the system has wasted “billions of taxpayer dollars”.

The state’s residents though, in 2016, narrowly struck down a ballot measure to repeal the death penalty. And Newsom’s decree appears to be a flip-flop from what he told the editorial board of the Modesto Bee newspaper that year while campaigning for the failed measure -- that he would “not get my personal opinions in the way of the public’s right to make a determination of where they want to take us” on the issue.

California hasn’t executed anyone since 2006 due to legal challenges to its methods, and the state has put to death only 13 people since 1978. The new executive order is said to last throughout Newsom’s duration in office, giving a reprieve to 737 individuals on death row.

Here are some of the criminals that get to live their lives for a little bit longer – without fear of execution – following Newsom’s decision: