Some local religious leaders also applauded the move
By Staff Report
Jeff Rosen
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen is seeking to re-sentence the 15 inmates from the county on California’s death row to instead serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In a press release, Rosen called the death penalty an “antiquated, racially biased, error-prone system” that is costly and undermines justice.
He highlighted the racial disparities, noting Black Californians make up more than 35 percent of the state’s death row population despite being only 5 percent of the overall population.
This action comes four years after Rosen stopped charging the death penalty, a decision he said he made after the murder of George Floyd and a trip to Montgomery, Ala., with his synagogue and a church group.
Public figures like lawyer Bryan Stevenson praised the move as courageous and a step toward equality and justice. Some local religious leaders also applauded the move.
The 15 inmates subject to potential resentencing have an average age of 63, with most originally sentenced between 1980-1997 though two were sentenced as recently as 2010-2011.
While California now has a moratorium on executions issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March 2019, Rosen argues the death penalty itself undermines dignity and is ineffective for the community. He aims to have the inmates resentenced to life without parole instead of execution.
“The question is not whether these 15 human beings deserve the death penalty,” Rosen said. “It’s whether the two million people of Santa Clara County deserve the indignity and ineffectiveness of the death penalty.
