Victims’ families lash out at Gavin Newsom after mass commutation of ‘monsters’ on death row in California

Loved ones of California murder victims lashed out at Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, one week after he moved to commute the death sentences of more than 500 condemned inmates.

The executive action, considered to be one of the most consequential moves against capital punishment in recent history, angered crime victims who had already had to endure the agonizing pain of losing a relative.

Faye Jenkins, whose daughter and son-in-law were tortured and murdered in their Riverside County home in 2008, said the California electorate backs capital punishment and Newsom shouldn’t have intervened.

“We voted for this,” Jenkins told reporters outside the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in Santa Ana.

“Who gives you that right to make the decision for all of us? You didn’t ask me, you didn’t ask my husband, you didn’t ask other families. Don’t inflict your personal beliefs on all of us.”

Golden State voters were last asked about capital punishment in 2016 and then, by a relatively narrow margin, rejected a death penalty abolition measure.

“People used to say they’re animals. No, I love animals. These were monsters,” Jenkins said of the four Marines who killed her daughter.

“They tortured my daughter and made my…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health