Jerry Brown In 1992: No Executions During Governorship, Vetoed Death Penalty

BROWN: Thank you, Reverend Jackson, and members of the panel, and the Rainbow Coalition, and everyone who's listening at home. Before I start, I want to say something about an event that happened last night. At 10:00, a black man was injected with a poison and executed in Arkansas, by the name of Ricky Ray Rector.

He was mentally impaired from a bullet shot wound and, by many, believed to be incompetent. Still he was executed. I think everyone should stand for a brief moment of silence.

Thank you. There is a moral dimension to politics where the line of tactics and compromise, and mere pragmatism, has to stop, and the commitment to integrity, and life, and commitment to the values that we know holds a civilized country together. That has to be maintained.

Capital punishment is something that I have been uncompromising about. The last man executed in California during the administration of former President Reagan when he was governor, was a black by the name of Aaron Mitchell. I was not in office at the time, but I was standing outside the prison walls in silent protest.

During my eight years as governor, no one was executed. And when the legislature put a bill on my desk to reinstate capital punishment after the Supreme Court had invalidated it, I vetoed that bill.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Brown
• Executions92

[BoyleJr]

I am Govenor Jerry Brown my Army smiles and never frowns