California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was in Italy this week for a climate resiliency summit hosted by the Vatican. While there, he and Pope Francis had time to talk privately.
According to the governor, Pope Francis “immediately brought up the issue of the death penalty” and told him “how proud he was of the work we’re doing in California.”
Pope Francis has been a force in solidifying the Catholic Church’s complete opposition to the death penalty.
On his own turf, Governor Newsom has taken an equally strong role in putting a stop to executions. In 2019, he promised to dismantle California’s execution chamber and to close its death row.
Sister Helen Prejean had a chance to talk with the governor before he made his announcement, and he impressed her both with his commitment and his clear moral thinking. Gov. Newsom’s speech that day is definitely worth watching.
Newsom undertook the first of those tasks immediately, ordering Department of Corrections staff to dismantle the state’s gas chamber that week.
The second task, of moving all the people housed on death row into the general prison population, is now well underway. Already 174 men have been rehoused, and an accelerated schedule to move the remaining 457 men was announced in March of this year.
Califonia’s death row also housed 20 women. They, too, have recently been moved to general population.
One of those women is Kerry Lyn Dalton, whom Sister Helen Prejean has been visiting and corresponding with for several years. Kerry Lyn joyfully related to Helen that the women in general population gathered to welcome, cheer and applaud the newcomers as they transferred into their new housing. After 30 years of segregated and harsh conditions, it was a monumental day for Kerry Lyn and the other women from death row.