Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced Thursday that his office will ask the California Supreme Court to reject Governor Gavin Newsom‘s sweeping clemency proposal for every death‑row inmate in the state. The petition specifically targets 49 convicted killers from Orange County who would stand to benefit from the governor’s call for blanket commutation.
Spitzer says the governor is overreaching
“When we go to court, we will make unequivocally clear to the Supreme Court that they are being asked by the governor to overturn the decisions they made affirming these death cases,” Spitzer told reporters while standing with victims’ families and advocacy groups. He added that the power to commute sentences is “extraordinary” and should be used only in “extraordinary situations,” not as a “wave of a magic wand.”
Who the clemency request would affect
The 49 inmates include notorious offenders such as Randy Steven Kraft, known as the “Scorecard Killer,” convicted of raping, torturing and murdering at least 16 young men and suspected in 51 additional deaths. Gerald Parker, the “Bedroom Basher,” killed five women and an unborn child in the 1970s. Steven Dean Gordon, a convicted child molester, helped murder at least four women between 2013 and 2014.
Three of the listed killers murdered law‑enforcement officers. Kevin Dewayn Boyce shot off‑duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Shayne York in the head during a 1997 robbery. Hung Thanh Mai executed California Highway Patrol Officer Don Joseph Burt during a 1996 traffic stop. Maurice Gerald Steskal ambushed Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Riches in 1999, firing 30 rounds from an AK‑47 rifle.
Other cases include the so‑called “Yacht Killers,” John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Skylar Deleon, who tied an Arizona couple to an anchor and drowned them to fund Deleon’s sex‑change operation, and John Joseph Famalaro, the “Cold Storage Killer,” who abducted and killed a 23‑year‑old woman in 1991.
Governor’s rationale and opposition
Newsom’s office argues that the inmates are not eligible for new parole‑board guidelines and that clemency would address systemic inequities in the death‑penalty system. Critics, including Spitzer, warn that removing the death‑row option could lead to further leniency or even release for some of the most violent offenders.
California voters have twice rejected measures to abolish the death penalty, yet Newsom continues to pursue a broad commutation strategy that would affect all 548 death‑row inmates statewide. Spitzer described the governor’s approach as “mercy for the wolves while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep,” emphasizing the pain it causes victims’ families.
Legal battle ahead
The California Supreme Court has already reviewed and upheld the convictions and death sentences of the 49 Orange County inmates. Spitzer’s filing, scheduled for Monday, will ask the justices to reconsider those rulings in light of the governor’s request.
As the case moves forward, the dispute highlights a broader clash between California’s executive leadership and local prosecutors over the appropriate use of executive clemency and the role of the death penalty in the state’s criminal‑justice system.
Original reporting: KTSA News/Talk (San Antonio) — read the source article.
