Gov. Gavin Newsom (Charlie Nguyen)

On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom halted the state’s death penalty system. During his press conference, Newsom ran through several good reasons why he decided to shutter death row. He stated the system was faulty, expensive and racially biased. People of color are more likely to end up on death row because they can’t hire expensive lawyers to challenge murder cases, he said.

“It’s always better to be rich and guilty, than poor and innocent,” said Newsom.

I’ve been against the death penalty for a long time. I realized that the death penalty is a flawed system which often makes mistakes and executes innocent people. The problems with the death penalty speak of bigger issues in the criminal justice system.

The system is overworked and run by prosecutors who really don’t care if the defendants are innocent or guilty. If your name lands on their desk, they assume you're guilty and set the wheels in motion. This was brilliantly illustrated in the HBO mini-series “The Night of,” that portrayed the legal travails of a young Muslim man accused of murder.

Prosecutors aren’t bothered about ruining an innocent person life or even killing a man for a crime he didn’t commit. This is why I’m skeptical of former prosecutors, like Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) who run for higher office. I always wonder, how many innocent people did they send to their deaths?

And this happens more often than people would like to admit. The Innocence Project, an organization that uses DNA evidence to reexamine old cases, has freed 364 inmates. Eighteen exonerees were on death row. The Innocence Project also stated African Americans make up 63 percent of the exonerees.

Almost every week we hear of a case of an inmate, often a black man, freed from jail after spending decades imprisoned on wrongful charges. These exonerees often receive million-dollar settlements, but you can’t replace 30 years of a lost life.

One of these examples is black Alabaman Anthony Ray Hinson, who spent 30 years behind bars, for a crime he didn’t commit. He was eventually freed after the Equal Justice Initiative took on his case.

Hinson’s case is a textbook study of the ills of the American justice system. He was accused of a double murder. The police came to his house and seized his mother’s gun, which they claimed was used in the crime. The gun didn’t work. However, the gun expert in his case was blind in one eye and only paid $500 for the case.

And wrongful executions often happen. A 2014 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated one in 25 executed people were innocent. “A surprising number of innocent people are sentenced to death,” said Samuel R. Gross, the study’s lead researcher, said in a Newsweek article. “It tells you that a lot of them haven’t been exonerated. Some of them no doubt have been executed.”

According to Hinton, the district attorney knew it was a flimsy case but was still wanted to execute him.

“They had every intention of executing an innocent man,” said Hinton in a 2015 Salon article. “The DA that we have now seems like he doesn’t give a damn about a man being innocent. In the South, people in power feel they don’t have to answer to no one. When you have a death row case, you have to make 100 percent sure you have the right person. But these DAs in the state of Alabama are racist.”

Hinton, who’s now a speaker and an author, sat on death row for 30 years. In an interview with Oprah, he said he could smell the burnt flesh of executed inmates after they had been electrocuted. He said that was a smell he will never forget.

Hinton’s case is one of the most effective arguments against the death penalty. The death penalty leaves no room for error. Once you’ve killed someone, you can’t go back and say, “Gee, we made a mistake.”

And wrongful executions often happen. A 2014 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated one in 25 executed people were innocent.

“A surprising number of innocent people are sentenced to death,” said Samuel R. Gross, the study’s lead researcher, in a Newsweek article. “It tells you that a lot of them haven’t been exonerated. Some of them no doubt have been executed.”

Of course, we can’t really know the true number because once an execution happens, the case is over. The dead person is buried and the state shuts the book. Justice was served. The prosecutor gets to chalk up a win, adds it to his victories and that helps him get a promotion. I suspect prosecutors don’t even want to know how many innocent people they’ve killed because it would be a stain on the legal profession. It would also open the floodgates for lawsuits.

Some victims groups have already protested Newsom’s actions, claiming his decision minimizes their pain. But do we still want to keep operating a system that might send innocent people to their deaths? The death penalty system is broken and immoral, and it’s not something that belongs in a civilized society.