Newsom moves to commute all California death sentences

Governor Newsom is seeking to commute all of California's death sentences. The governor earlier today announced that he will change the death sentences of all 548 death row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The commutations follow his 2019 moratorium on executions, which halted executions but left the death sentences in place. The California Constitution does require the state Supreme Court's approval before the governor can commute many of those sentences The governor issued an open letter on today's decision, saying in part, quote, 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. My decision today comes after nearly three decades of openly opposing state-sanctioned executions as an elected official. Well, the race for the East Bay's 14th congressional race, it remains still too close to call this afternoon. Currently, Ayesha Wahab is leading over Melissa Hernandez with 57% of the ballots counted so far. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has not updated results since early yesterday morning and new results are not expected until tomorrow afternoon. So the waiting continues. All right, in a matter of days, San Francisco's newest member of Congress, Scott Weiner, will be heading to Washington, D.C. And KTVU's Christian Captain is joining us now live from the city. And Christian, you had a chance earlier today to speak with the congressman-elect, and he laid out his priorities for day one in Congress. Yeah, we are here at his headquarters in the Castro. Scott Weiner saying he is looking forward to getting to work on a number of important fronts. State Senator now Congressman-elect Scott Weiner said his top priorities in Washington, D.C. include restoring cuts to the Affordable Care Act, creating meaningful legislation around artificial intelligence, and holding the current administration accountable. We need to take strong anti-corruption measures out of the gate. The depth of corruption in this administration is off. The charts and we need to send a clear message to the American people that government, that our executive branch and Congress, we are going to have the strongest ethics and anti-corruption standards. Wiener said another critical issue going forward will be working to draw down U.S. forces in Iran. Under the Republicans, Congress has given away. So much of its power to the president, including around war powers. We need to take that back. We need to end this war. This war is illegal. It's been a complete disaster. Wiener saying Democrats will also have to take a hard look at the president's immigration enforcement policies, which he said are not only inhumane, but are stagnating the economy. Trump's campaign of terror against immigrant communities is causing harm on so many levels, tearing families apart. It is just inhumane and horrific and has to stop. It also It does great harm to our economy because it undermines our workforce. Wiener will be among a large incoming freshman class of new Democratic lawmakers and he says he has confidence that Democratic leadership will be able to balance pushing forward new legislation to help the American people and push back on President Trump. Of course, if there is an impeachment vote of the president, I will vote for it. We also want to make sure that we are not losing focus on what the voters have told us in very clear terms that they want. They want us to focus on lowering people's cost of living, on housing, health care, energy costs and so forth, and we want to make sure that that doesn't get overshadowed. And Wiener told us that he'll be heading to Washington, D.C. on Saturday for what amounts to freshman orientation. He said he's already talked to some of his fellow incoming freshman lawmakers as well as Democratic leadership at this point. No word on committee assignments. Guys, remember, this is a big deal. In all the times that I've been here working in San Francisco, I have never had to cover a new incoming freshman senator for California's 11th district. Guys, remember, Nancy Pelosi has occupied this seat. in San Francisco since 1987 so this really is a momentous change for San Francisco again that was one of the questions i'd had for uh the congressman-elect is what committee assignments might he be on remember San Francisco is kind of a tech hub so maybe he'll be uh overlooking uh overseeing some of those issues surrounding AI uh he said uh clearly Clearly, Restoring cuts to ACA are among his top priorities, so we'll have to see where this all goes from here, guys. All right, big shoes to fill, nonetheless. Christian Kapton, thank you.