California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in California is triggering unpleasant memories and backlash for those with memories one of San Diego County’s most notorious killers.
The California Supreme Court would still have to approve commutations for people with multiple felony convictions, but one of those spared could be David Westerfield — who was sentenced to death for the 2002 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
Westerfield, now 74, broke into a neighbor’s house at night, snatched van Dam, sexually abused her, killed her, then dumped her body on the side of a road, according to prosecutors.
She was missing for 24 days before her body was found decomposed. Westerfield was also accused of possessing child sexual abuse material found on his computer.
A neighbor who lived nearby the perpetrator and victim recounted on social media the horror she felt as a 13-year-old when the crime happened, claiming she developed insomnia because of it.
“Danielle’s murder devastated our whole neighborhood, and me personally. I was a sensitive kid and it was a major contributor to my mental health decline in adolescence,” said Christina Buttons, now an investigative reporter with City Journal.
She has waited 24 years for his execution but blasted Newsom for removing that possibility.
“It’s especially insulting to hear Newsom go on about morality, as if he is morally superior to those of us whose lives were affected by these heinous crimes and who want to see the perpetrators brought to justice,” Buttons said.
California voters rejected abolishing the death penalty in both 2012 and 2016, and even voted to expedite executions, she noted.
Newsom’s decision when he took office to pause all executions went against the will of the voters, she added, but the mass commutations go further.
She called on the California Supreme Court to reject Newsom’s commutations.
“All these years, I’ve held on to the hope that someone would eventually take office who respected the will of California voters and would allow these sentences to be carried out,” she said.
The governor, in his lengthly letter to the public explaining his decision, has casted it as a difficult but morally righteous thing to do.
But Newsom also admitted he would be causing pain to a lot of people.
“I also acknowledge that this clemency action will anger and hurt some Californians. This will always weigh heavily on me. As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” Newsom wrote.
