OPINION: Gavin Newsom’s Death-Penalty Overreach

Gavin Newsom, the newly inaugurated governor of California, would very much like to be president of the United States someday. It is fitting, then, that Newsom has begun his audition for the role by engaging in the sort of brazen executive overreach that we have become accustomed to seeing from White Houses.

On Tuesday, Newsom confirmed that no executions will be performed in California while he is governor. This change, he explained, will be made unilaterally, without reference to either the legislature or the judiciary, by applying his gubernatorial reprieve...