(CNN) Prosecutors in the case of suspected Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo will seek the death penalty, they said in court Wednesday -- despite the governor's moratorium on executions.

Though Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in March preventing executions from being carried out in California, the order does not prevent death penalty sentences from being handed out.

DeAngelo is accused of killing more than a dozen people and of at least 50 rapes in 6 counties in California between 1976 and 1986. Four of the counties said they will ask for the death penalty if he's convicted. The charges against DeAngelo in two of the counties, Tulare and Contra Costa, are not eligible for the death penalty.

"We are absolutely thrilled with what has happened today," said Ron Harrington, brother of victim Keith Harrington who was killed in 1980. Cases like this, he said, are "why we have the death penalty."

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The suspect, dubbed the Golden State Killer by law enforcement officials and also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker, is being tried on the multiple murder counts in a single trial in Sacramento.

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