Sheriff Asks Newsom to Allow Death Penalty for Cartel Murderers

On Monday Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux asked California Governor Gavin Newsom to lift his moratorium on the death  penalty for the members of the drug gang that executed six people including a 16-year-old mother and her 10-month-old son.  The Sacramento Bee reports that during a press conference yesterday the Sheriff told reporters “I would like him (Newsom) to lift the ban on the death penalty in cases where small children are murdered.  This should be a death penalty case.”  All of the victims in the January 16 murders were members of the same family.  The Sheriff said that the killings were a “cartel-style execution,” likely involving a criminal gang distributing drugs for a Mexican cartel.

Deputies responded to a 4 AM report of shots fired at a home in the small town of Goshin.  They found bodies in the street, inside the house, and the young mother lying in a nearby ditch clutching the infant in her arms.  All of the victims were shot in the head.  In 2016 California voters rejected Proposition 62, a ballot measure to repeal the death penalty and passed Proposition 66, a ballot measure to speed up its enforcement.  That year, while campaigning for Governor, Newsom told reporters that he would not put his personal opinions ahead of the will of the voters.  Three months after assuming office in 2019, Newsom cited his personal opposition to the death penalty and announced a blanket reprieve of every murderer on the state’s death row.  His administration is currently moving condemned murderers off of death row and into other state prisons with better living conditions.