Prosecutors in California will seek the death penalty if they convict the man suspected of being the notorious “Golden State Killer”.
The move comes less than a month after the California governor, Gavin Newsom, announced a moratorium on executing any of the 737 inmates on the nation’s largest death row. But Newsom’s reprieve lasts only so long as he is governor and does not prevent prosecutors from seeking nor judges and juries from imposing death sentences.
Prosecutors from four counties in the state briefly announced their decision one after another on Wednesday during a short court hearing for Joseph DeAngelo, jailed as the suspected “Golden State Killer”.
DeAngelo was arrested a year ago based on DNA evidence linking him to at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and 80s.
He stood expressionless in an orange jail uniform, staring forward from a courtroom cage, as prosecutors from Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Orange and Ventura spoke.
Although prosecutors from six counties were in court for the four-minute hearing, charges in those four counties include the special circumstances that could merit execution under California law.
DeAngelo’s attorney, the public defender Diane Howard, did not comment. DeAngelo, 73, has yet to enter a plea and his trial is probably years away.
Prosecutors wouldn’t comment after the hearing, but the Orange county district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said several prosecutors and family members of murder victims planned a Thursday news conference to denounce Newsom’s moratorium.
An announcement from Spitzer’s office said victims’ families “will share their stories of losing their loved ones and how the governor’s moratorium has devastated their pursuit of justice”.
“These are horrific crimes,” Newsom said in a statement. “Our sympathies are with the victims and families who have suffered at the hands of the Golden State Killer. The district attorneys can pursue this action as is their right under the law.”
California has not executed anyone since 2006, but Newsom said he acted last month because 25 inmates have exhausted their appeals and court challenges to the state’s new lethal injection process are potentially nearing their end. He endorsed a repeal of capital punishment but said he could not in good conscience allow executions to resume in the meantime knowing that some innocent inmates could die.
He also said he is exploring ways to commute death sentences, which would permanently end the chance of executions, though he cannot act without permission from the state supreme court in many cases.
Voters narrowly supported capital punishment in 2012 and 2016, when they voted to speed up executions by shortening appeals.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation legal director, Kent Scheidegger, said prosecutors’ decision made sense despite Newsom’s moratorium.
“It’s a perfect example of a killer for whom anything less would not be justice,” said Scheidegger, who is fighting in court to resume executions. “I think it’s entirely appropriate for DAs to continue seeking the death penalty in appropriate cases, because the actual execution will be well down the road and the governor’s reprieve won’t be in effect by then. Something else will have happened.”