Newsom's executive order comes after California voters in the last two presidential elections rejected attempts to repeal the death penalty. In 2016, not only did voters block the repeal, but they fast-tracked death penalty appeals through a competing measure backed by law enforcement groups. | Nick Ut/AP Photo Newsom takes his case against death penalty to national stage

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking his anti-death penalty campaign to the national stage, where capital punishment could become a signature social cause — just like gay marriage more than a decade ago when he was the mayor of San Francisco.

The Democratic governor made his case Friday to a national audience on “CBS Morning News” and then sat down with the women of “The View," who applauded him for saying he could not "in good conscience" put people to death.


He told "CBS Morning News" that California's Death Row roster of 737 inmates would require the state to perform one execution a week for 14 years. "What kind of state, what kind of country does that?" he asked. "And by the way, that's a worthy question to answer, not just to ask. Saudi Arabia, North Korea."

"There are few countries in the world that still execute their citizens in a premeditated way," he added. "I don't think the United States should be continuing to be in that group."

As he did on gay marriage, Newsom is again defying popular opinion, this time hoping California and the nation will eventually agree with him on capital punishment.

"On so many things, big changes flow west to east in our country," said Newsom adviser Dan Newman. "And it’s true on something like this, with the power of our sheer size — look at the number of people on death row.”

As San Francisco mayor in 2004, Newsom defied public polls and members of his own party, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), when he declared same-sex marriage legal in his city — a drive that was eventually backed by the U.S. Supreme Court. He also raised eyebrows becoming the first statewide official to support the legalization of recreational cannabis in California — later credited with helping to pass a 2016 ballot measure that formalized what has now become the nation’s largest legal pot market.

Newsom's executive order comes after California voters in the last two presidential elections rejected attempts to repeal the death penalty. In 2016, not only did voters block the repeal, but they fast-tracked death penalty appeals through a competing measure backed by law enforcement groups.

Newsom said during the campaign he would respect the will of the electorate, but explained Wednesday that he believes voters knew his personal feelings against capital punishment when they elected him in a landslide in November.

Mark Baldassare, head of the Public Policy Institute of California, says that his organization's polling over the years has consistently shown that around 55 percent of Californians back the idea of life imprisonment over the death penalty. But “that can change’’ during high-profile ballot campaigns, when voters are often reminded of specific heinous crimes, boosting their support of the death penalty, he warns.

Baldassare suggested that Newsom may sense a window of opportunity, given that he's raising the issue “at a time when many Americans have expressed doubts about the fairness and justice of the criminal justice system,’’ including the disparate sentencing of rich and poor defendants, race and police brutality issues.

Those who have worked with Newsom for years note that in both cases, the Democrat’s political moves presaged eventual shifts in voter opinions. Newman, a longtime San Francisco-based strategist to Newsom, said he wants to provide empirical evidence to convince policy makers and voters around the country.

“There’s nothing wrong with polls, but he thinks you can’t make policy decisions like that,’’ said Newman. “How much did the raw evidence move public opinion on same-sex marriage? He said, 'We’re going to let gay people marry ... and let’s see if the sky will fall and the economy will crash.' He actually moved people on it. He’s willing to both make the case and provide the empirical evidence."

But San Francisco attorney Harmeet Dhillon, a former vice chair of the California Republican Party and member of the Republican National Committee, said Newsom’s defiance of voters was “wrong, ironic and broken on multiple levels.”

“At a very basic electoral level, he didn’t campaign on this'' in his 2018 run for governor, she said, calling it "a very sleazy bait-and-switch after not making it a campaign issue."

Dhillon said she can understand if Newsom wanted to build consensus to change the state's death penalty law, particularly when “there are arguments about the disparity of the death penalty..and many good people of faith” are debating its morality.

“But the way you change the law is to change the law,’’ she said.

The governor’s move this week delivered a reprieve to 473 inmates housed in what Newsom called “the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere,’’ in addition to withdrawing the protocol for lethal injections in the state. He also ordered the closure of the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County — and posted pictures on Twitter of workers carrying out equipment used in executions.

It did not, however, change the law regarding the death penalty in California — a move Newsom said could be up before the voters, possibly by 2020.

Democratic strategist Garry South, who advised Newsom’s 2010 campaign for governor against Jerry Brown, said that Republicans railing about the matter are ignoring the fact that Newsom's move comes two decades after Republican Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced he was suspending all executions in his state due to what he said were concerns about miscarriages of justice.

The Illinois governor’s move in 2000 “spared the lives of 163 men and 4 women who have served a collective 2,000 years for the murders of more than 250 people,’’ and was seen as “the most significant statement questioning capital punishment since the Supreme Court struck down states' old death penalty laws in 1972," according to a New York Times account of the move.

Though Newsom's executive order echoed those same comments, President Trump tweeted this week he was "not thrilled" with Newsom's decision to be "defying voters.'' The national attention could not only reopen the start of a national debate on the issue — but also put Newsom again in the spotlight as a disruptor in national politics, and a Democratic governor to watch, South said.

“This is not going to be the last surprise of the Gavin Newsom administration,’’ he predicted.