Gavin Newsom’s decision to suspend executions in California for as long as he is governor is, for the time being, a symbolic act. No one has been executed in San Quentin’s death chamber since Jan. 17, 2006, and few believe the next execution would have happened any time soon, given the array of legal hurdles embroiling the system. But Newsom’s moratorium — technically, he granted reprieves to each of the 737 people on death row — at a minimum adds further delays to the resumption of the machinery of death, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun once described it. And that’s a good thing.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 13, 2019 18:18 UTC