As both of my regular readers know, I am opposed to capital punishment. It is my position that we should not kill anybody, unless it is absolutely necessary, and if we have a prisoner so securely held that he cannot prevet his own execution, he is, by any rational definition, helpless. If he is helpless, it is not necessary to kill him.
Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is commuting the capital sentences of all 548 people on death row in the Pyrite State, although technical problems exist. This is no surprise, given that he imposed a moratorium on executione when he entered office in 2019, and California has not actually executed anyone since 2006. But some families are very upset:
Her son was raped, murdered. Newsom’s death row decision brings ‘soul-hurting pain’
By Michael McGough | November 6, 2026 | 6:42 PM PST
Among the 548 inmates sentenced to death in California is Robert Rhoades, who abducted 8-year-old Michael Lyons as he walked home from school in Yuba City on May 16, 1996, then tortured and raped him before stabbing him more than 70 times.
Michael was found dead the next day, his body recovered from brush along the banks of the Feather River.
Michael’s mother, Sandy Friend, was outraged by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision Thursday to commute the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“I feel a deep, soul-hurting pain and an angry, screaming feeling inside,” Friend said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “We fought for justice, and now one man has swiped away these monsters’ true sentences in one moment, just like the monsters who took our loved ones’ voices and silenced our loved ones.
“Governor Newsom commuted every death sentence in California, and no one contacted me first. Years and years of fighting, by me, by other people, and by families, and now it feels like it means absolutely nothing. He didn’t even take the time to look at each case, or to sit down with the family members who are affected.”
There’s more at the original.
Since the reinstitution of capital punishment in 1976, California has executed 13 men, the last occurring in 2006. Thirteen executions over thirty years, or one every two years and four months. If executions were to resume tomorrow, at the previous rate, it would take until June of the year 3290 to execute everyone on the state’s death row. The odds that Mr Rhoades would be among the first executed are vanishingly small, and he’s well into middle age now. Mr Rhoades will die as almost all death row inmates die, from something other than execution.
Mrs Friend obviously does not believe that justice will have been done for her dead son if Mr Rhoades is not put to death, and I can understand that belief on her part. But if only execution will provide true justice, then the vast, vast majority of murderers will have escaped true justice. Not only are most death row inmates not executed, but the vast majority of murderers are not sentenced to death. Many are not even sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, but have chances of being eventually released.
It would be unnecessarily cruel for me to say to Mrs Friend that she should just get over it, but realistically, what other choice is there? Her beloved son is dead and gone, and the state could not just execute Mr Rhoades, but burn him at the stake, and it would neither pay the full price for what he did nor bring young Michael Lyons back to life.
The United States does retain capital punishment in many states, but let’s tell the truth here: it’s not like we take the condemned straight from the courthouse to be hanged from an oak tree. Condemned men are guaranteed multiple appeals, and their executions, even if they do occur, are far divorced from their actual crimes. We might as well just save the time, money, and effort and sentence all of the killers to life without the possibility of parole.