California suspends death penalty

Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in California on Wednesday, granting a reprieve to 737 condemned inmates -- the largest death row population in the United States.

Newsom, a Democrat who took office in January, has been a staunch opponent of the death penalty, last carried out in California in 2006.

"The death penalty has been an abject failure. It discriminates based on the color of your skin or how much money you make," he told a news conference. "It's ineffective, irreversible, and immoral.

"It goes against the very values that we stand for -- which is why California is putting a stop to this failed system." Newsom said that as he spoke, the execution chamber at California's San Quentin State Prison was being dismantled and stressed that his order does not mean that any inmates already on death row would be released.

"Those people are not going to be let out by this act, they will be held to account," he said. "We don't want to join Saudi