MICHAEL RUIZ: California prosecutors revolt after Newsom orders state's worst killers off death row
Shortly after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his plans for clemency for hundreds of death row inmates in the Golden State, current and former prosecutors from across the state issued shocked responses to his push for blanket commutations.
Among those slated to have their frozen death penalties commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole is Isauro Aguirre, the Palmdale man convicted in 2017 of torturing and murdering his girlfriend's 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, who died in 2013.
"It’s horrible," Jonathan Hatami, the deputy Los Angeles district attorney who prosecuted the case, told Fox News Digital.
Hatami told Fox News Digital that the governor's decision came without any discussions with Gabriel's family. On X, he reposted his heart-wrenching closing argument from before Aguirre's sentencing.
"Death was likely a merciful end to Gabriel’s pain — and that only illuminates the torture and abuse that he really suffered," Hatami said at the time. "When he needed it most, no one was there to hold Gabriel, to love him, to caress him, and to just tell him ‘everything will be alright.’"
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Aguirre tortured the child for more than seven months before beating him so severely he died with a fractured skull and broken ribs. The abuse included shooting him with a BB gun, burning his genitals and forcing him to eat cat feces. Prosecutors alleged that Aguirre hated the second grader because he was gay. Gabriel's mother was also sentenced to prison.
"The defendant is not a victim," Hatami said in his closing argument. Aguirre, he said, was "pure evil" and a "coward."
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Among the prisoners who would benefit from Newsom's decision are the state's worst — those who have tortured their victims, like Aguirre, murdered children, gunned down police and even serial killers.
The "Scorecard Killer" Randy Kraft killed 16 men between 1972 and 1983. The "Trailside Killer" David Carpenter killed seven people on hiking trails between 1980 and 1981. "Yosemite Killer" Cary Stayner murdered a mother, her daughter, the girl's friend and another woman in 1999. Charles Ng was sentenced to death for his role in the abduction and torture, rape and murder of 11 people between 1984 and 1985, including two infants.
"I am not aware of any victims’ family members receiving notice of these commutations from the Governor," San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said in his own statement, in which he called Newsom's move "the wrong decision."
Newsom, however, wrote in an open letter to state residents that the state "cannot morally kill" them.
"I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us," he wrote — later acknowledging that those who would benefit from his move "caused indescribable suffering to victims, their families, communities, and our state as a whole."
Current Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, along with counterparts in Orange, Sacramento and other counties, have issued statements noting that they will continue to consider the death penalty on future eligible cases following Newsom's surprise announcement Thursday, noting that his action does not change state law or abolish capital punishment.
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"Every death sentence results from years of legal proceedings, involving juries, judges, and multiple layers of mandatory appellate review," Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho noted in a statement. "A blanket commutation of all death sentences disregards the individualized facts and circumstances of each case, the careful judicial process that led to those lawful sentences, and the voices of victims who have waited decades for justice."
While California hasn't executed a condemned inmate in 20 years, death row inmates have largely been excluded from progressive criminal justice reforms made to lighten sentences on other offenders.
"Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation of the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in California is mercy for the wolves...while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
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With death row off the table, critics like Spitzer consider them closer to further leniency.
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Newsom's office countered on X that the prisoners in question are not eligible for new state parole board guidelines that critics warn could one day clear a path to freedom.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, led by former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, sued to block the new regulations.
"We're talking about people that would have been qualified for the death penalty, OK? So they are the worst of the worst," she told Fox News Digital in August.
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"We are talking about cop killers. We're talking about baby killers. We had a family at our press conference of a 6-week-old that was tortured to death by her father over a weeklong period of time, all of which, what I understand, was on video — and so you talk about baby killers. We talk about mass shooters, there's a case out of Fresno that happened in the early '90s where a guy killed 10 people and he pled to life without parole. He would potentially be eligible."
Newsom's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state's Supreme Court is expected to review hundreds of cases before Newsom's clemency would be official.
