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California bishop: Commute all death sentences to life without parole
Sacramento Bee ^ | April 4, 2026 | By Bishop Oscar Cantú

Posted on 04/04/2026 12:44:41 PM PDT by artichokegrower

During Holy Week, as Christians recall how a public change of heart led to what we consider to be the ultimate sacrifice in a state-sanctioned execution, it is a fitting moment to reflect on how justice is carried out today. California holds the largest death row population in the nation, with hundreds of men and women still living under a sentence of death. Yet our state has not carried out an execution in years and has already begun moving toward a more humane vision of justice.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: romancatholic; splintersectinrome
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California has already begun moving in this direction. Under Newsom’s leadership, many individuals once held on death row have been transferred to other correctional facilities while remaining securely incarcerated.


Newsom shut down California’s San Quentin death row and transferred the inmates to other prisons. The result has been:

Inmate-on-inmate homicide is a persistent, rising issue in California prisons, with 31 inmates murdered in 2025, up from 24 in 2024, often involving manufactured weapons in secure yards. Recent incidents include fatal assaults at Salinas Valley, Calipatria, and Folsom state prisons, frequently involving inmates with existing life sentences

Recent Recorded Incidents (2025-2026):January 2026 (Calipatria State Prison): Mario Ramos, 48, was killed in a two-on-one attack in the exercise yard. January 2026 (Pleasant Valley State Prison): Brion Spidle, 41, died following an assault by two inmates in a dayroom November 2025(Calipatria State Prison): Alex Mercado, 31, was attacked and killed by two inmates in the exercise yard. Nov 2025 (Salinas Valley State Prison): Kevin Torres was found dead in his cell, a homicide investigation involving his cellmate.Oct 2025 (Salinas Valley State Prison): Todd S. Morgan, 57, was killed by three inmates using improvised weapons. April 2025 (Salinas Valley State Prison): Joseph Mendoza was killed in an attack by two other inmates. Feb 2025 (California State Prison, Folsom): Jonathan Roode was killed in a fight involving two other inmates in the exercise yard.

1 posted on 04/04/2026 12:44:41 PM PDT by artichokegrower
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To: artichokegrower

and then in a few years when there is overcrowding...


2 posted on 04/04/2026 12:49:32 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: artichokegrower

It’s California.

I’m surprised they haven’t taken their killers out and given them all a million dollars to celebrate the worst of the worst monsters. Maybe a mansion thrown if for serial killers...

Does anyone care what the nutcases in California think or do?


3 posted on 04/04/2026 12:49:58 PM PDT by GOPJ (Oil was over $100 for three and a half years of Obama’s term without daily headlines - MSM sucks...)
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To: artichokegrower

Can we commute the death sentences of all the people they murdered too, Your Excellency?


4 posted on 04/04/2026 12:50:26 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies with Democrats.)
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To: artichokegrower

Would love to see this Bishop sit with the families of those that have been visciously murdered and hear their opinions on the subject.


5 posted on 04/04/2026 12:51:29 PM PDT by allendale
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To: artichokegrower

And I turned twenty-one in prison, doing life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied
That leaves only me to blame, ‘cause mama tried


6 posted on 04/04/2026 12:52:17 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Beowulf9

There is no such thing as life without parole. Those kind of people will escape, talk their way out, or get released form a change in the political climate. And their victims families will suffer.


7 posted on 04/04/2026 12:56:16 PM PDT by wbarmy (Trying to do better.)
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To: artichokegrower

I have another idea: Sentence carried out 1 year after conviction unless new evidence is presented.


8 posted on 04/04/2026 12:57:23 PM PDT by libertylover (The HBM (Has Been Media) is almost all AGENDA-DRIVEN and HATE-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: artichokegrower

While the dims are anti-death penalty, they are also profoundly pro-euthanasia. So why not offer euthanasia to death row inmates? That is, let them choose to take a lethal drug.

Makes you wonder how many would make that choice?


9 posted on 04/04/2026 12:57:38 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("We come in peace. Don't look too carefully at our menus.")
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To: Beowulf9

Or Covid.


10 posted on 04/04/2026 12:59:14 PM PDT by Yogafist
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To: artichokegrower

Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law(1966)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgtQj8O92eI

I couldn’t restrain myself.


11 posted on 04/04/2026 12:59:52 PM PDT by kawhill (Dywedwch Wrthym because + Add translation Welsh-English dictionary 'Tell Us')
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To: artichokegrower
The Heavenly Father required the ‘send them back to Me’ penalty.. This bishop follows the devil…. A lot of devil worshippers playin Christian..
12 posted on 04/04/2026 1:02:36 PM PDT by Just mythoughts (Matthew 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, )
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To: artichokegrower

Historically Catholics didn’t mind capital punishment . . . even brutal ones like burning at the stake.


13 posted on 04/04/2026 1:04:23 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Call my personal secretary, Jennie, at 867-5309.)
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To: artichokegrower

Fine.
All of them can then be transferred to incarceration at the Vatican!


14 posted on 04/04/2026 1:06:20 PM PDT by doc maverick
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To: artichokegrower

PRISONS HANDLE THEIR OWN “DEATH PENALTIES”


15 posted on 04/04/2026 1:08:44 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

What’s the point? Ca is not about to execute anyone anyway.


16 posted on 04/04/2026 1:09:47 PM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: gibsonguy
What’s the point?

An opportunity for His Excellency to virtue signal.

17 posted on 04/04/2026 1:16:18 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies with Democrats.)
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To: artichokegrower

Nobody gets executed in California... Shit down and shut your piehole Bishop Cantú. If California is fine with letting their most vicious and evil people live out their lives in the luxury of the California prison system... So be it. Let the rest of this world decide for themselves.

BTW - I certainly hope you feel the same way about abortions. If you’re against the death penalty and abortions... Fine. But if you’re for abortions and against the death penalty... Then you are a hypocrite.


18 posted on 04/04/2026 1:21:17 PM PDT by jerod (Nazis were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: wbarmy

19 posted on 04/04/2026 1:21:44 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Beowulf9

Those without the moral strength to execute convicted murderers should not be responsible for the protection of society.


20 posted on 04/04/2026 1:34:55 PM PDT by TheDon (Remember the J6 political prisoners! Remember Ashli Babbitt!)
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