A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to force California to resume executions of almost 700 men and women on Death Row.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals officially ended the 2015 lawsuit in the wake of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 order banning any executions during his four-year office term.
The suit was by Bradley Winchell and former pro football athlete Kermit Alexander who played in the NFL from 1963 to 1973 for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles.
In August 1984, Alexander endured a horrific family loss in a home invasion in Los Angeles. Alexander later gave public interviews detailing how he went on a manhunt for the killers until the city’s mayor called him off, said the Oct. 24 article by the Bay Area News Group.
Winchell also suffered loss of a family member who was murdered in another incident. The family was seeking to re-establish the death penalty because of these tragic incidents.
Since the death penalty has been active, it’s most recent executions by California were Clarence Ray Allen in 2006 and Stanley “Tookie” Williams in 2004.
When Newsom officially halted executions shortly after taking office, he said the death penalty is a failure “by any measure.”
“It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars,” Newsom said. “But most of all, the death penalty is absolute, irreversible and irreparable in the event of a human error.”
In recent years, California has seen a drastic criminal reform shift of more progressive district attorneys taking office and vocally opposing the death penalty, including in major metropolitan counties like San Francisco and Los Angeles, said the article.
