Equal Justice Society President Lisa Holder and other civil rights leaders and community advocates gathered this morning on the West Steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento to urge Governor Newsom to commute all death sentences in California.
In addition to Lisa, the speakers included: Dorothy Ehrlich, formerly ACLU; Father Mike McBride, LIVE FREE; Michael Mendoza, LatinoJustice; Vincent Pan, Chinese for Affirmative Action; Robert Rooks, One for Justice; Imani Rupert-Gordon, National Center for Lesbian Rights; and Morgan Zamora, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
Clemency California (https://clemencyca.org) organized the event as a powerful call to recognize the urgency of justice for those on death row, people who are disproportionately Black and brown, poor, and often sentenced through processes riddled with racial bias and systemic harm.
This action also speaks to the core of the California reparations movement. Ending the death penalty is one way we begin to address the enduring consequences of slavery, racial terror, and state-sanctioned violence. The work of the California Reparations Task Force, the first of its kind in the country, made this connection clear.
Over two years, the Task Force studied the harms of slavery and its afterlife in California and released a comprehensive set of recommendations in 2023 to repair those harms through policy, investment, and truth-telling.
Right now, we have an opportunity to continue building momentum by drawing a clear connection between clemency and reparations and demanding that California take action.
We’re urging individuals and organizations across the state to take a public stance by endorsing the California Reparations Task Force Report. Endorsing the report shows that you believe in a future where justice, healing, and repair are not just possible, but necessary.
Ending the death penalty is a priority bill amongst the Task Force’s 115 reparations bill recommendations. Decarceration and abolition was a guiding principle for the Task Force’s work.
Add your voice here and join hundreds of others who have already endorsed the report.