California Gov. Gavin Newsom to freeze the death penalty

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is expected to announce on Wednesday that he will use an executive order to put a moratorium on the death penalty, USA Today reports.

There are now 737 inmates on California's death row, with 24 having exhausted all of their appeals. During his announcement, Newsom is planning on declaring that the "intentional killing of another person is wrong" and "as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual," USA Today says. He will argue that the death penalty is inherently racist, biased against the mentally ill, does not increase safety, is expensive, and has led to the deaths of wrongfully convicted inmates.

The governor has the ability to commute death sentences, and the order gives all death row inmates an immediate reprieve from being executed. Previously, Newsom called the death penalty a "failed policy" that "wastes money and is fundamentally immoral." In 2016, voters in California narrowly rejected a proposition that would have changed all death sentences into life without the possibility of parole. The state last executed a death row inmate in 2006.