Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer Thursday announced at a news conference with relatives of murder victims that his office is planning to file a motion Monday challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation of death row prisoners to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Spitzer’s intended legal challenge comes as the nonprofit Criminal Justice Legal Foundation announced its effort to block the governor’s move.
Spitzer said he would file a brief with the state Supreme Court on Monday.
“The reason the governor feels he can get away with this is because he doesn’t believe there are any consequences,” Spitzer said.
The county’s top prosecutor said the state’s highest court should push back on any change in sentencings it has upheld.
“Doesn’t this go against everything the Supreme Court stands for?” Spitzer said.
Spitzer acknowledged the effort will be difficult.
“I think we may have to get down on our knees in this one,” he said as he asked the prosecutors and crime victim advocates at the news conference to pray for the effort.
Spitzer argued that the governor’s move overrides the will of voters, who last voted to support the death penalty a decade ago. He said voters also supported a proposition that would expedite the review process.
Spitzer accused Newsom of playing politics with the issue.
“In order to become president of the United States, he has to move as far to the left as he can to become the nominee,” Spitzer said.
He added he was “so offended” when the governor said he would not consider each of the 548 death penalty cases, but instead commuted the terms of punishment for all of the inmates at once.
Spitzer argued that the inmates will somehow get chances at parole eventually despite being committed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
To his critics, Spitzer said, “Shame on you. Go to hell. … You’re going to attack (crime victims)?”
Spitzer recalled witnessing the execution of Clarence Ray Allen, the last prisoner in the state who was put to death, in 2006.
The court upholding the governor’s commutations would “absolutely undermine the justice system in California,” Spitzer said.
To the families of the victims of the condemned inmates, Spitzer said, “I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart. … We’ll never leave your side. We’ll fight to the end. We’re in this together. Never give up.”
Steve Herr, the father of Sam Herr, who was killed by condemned inmate Daniel Wozniak in Costa Mesa, recounted the grisly details of the dismemberment of his son and how the defendant arranged a crime scene to make it look like Sam Herr had sexually assaulted his close friend Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, whom he was also convicted of killing.
“On what would have been my son’s 27th birthday, (investigators) found my son’s head,” Herr said. “I guess you know how I feel.”
Herr railed against the governor for not meeting with the victims’ families before making his decision. Herr was also upset when Newsom dismantled San Quentin State Prison and suspended executions.
Wozniak, Herr said, “gained some access to computers, he took classes. … He had more freedom to socialize.”
The commutations further angered him, he said.
“How does he do this without addressing the families face to face?” Herr said. “He did it while in his office. … That was a cowardly act. … Daniel Wozniak broke my heart. Gavin Newsom broke my soul.”
Paul Wilson, whose 47-year-old wife Christy Lynn Wilson was gunned down by Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county’s history in 2011, said he used to support capital punishment but has since had a change of heart on the issue.
The six years of attending hearings for Dekraai, who ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a judge prohibited prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because of misconduct, gave Wilson time to think about the issue, he said.
“It gave me time to look at and think about the criminal justice system and the bigger picture, and what does the death penalty mean in the criminal justice system,” Wilson said.
For prosecutors, a death penalty verdict is the top prize so they oppose what the governor did on those grounds, Wilson argued.
“The death penalty is like a Super Bowl trophy to a prosecutor,” Wilson said. “They’re taking that Super Bowl trophy away from them and giving them the NCAA title.”
Wilson, who was a Spitzer supporter and campaigned for his election, has had an acrimonious falling out with the prosecutor.
“I’ll never see it in my lifetime,” Wilson said of any more executions given what Newsom did and Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra’s support for a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.
“What are they going to do? Put someone to death every week” if it is reinstated, Wilson said. “It’s moronic to see guys like Spitzer pound their chest… He’s trying to be a big shot instead of talking common sense.”
Wilson said he sympathizes with Herr.
“I walk in the same shoes as Mr. Herr,” Wilson said. “We just have a different view.”
Wilson said he is comforted by the fact that there was finality to Dekraai’s case.
“I spent 6 and 1/2 years gong to court on this,” he said. “It really wasn’t about the murders. Could I stand another 5 1/2 years of appeals and stomach that and watch that play out. Absolutely not. To me that would be a death sentence for me.”
Dekraai, Wilson said, “is in a place with one eye looking forward and another one looking back.”