A Salinas reverend joins in a statewide campaign asking to end the death penalty.

Sara Rubin here, longing for moral clarity. In these times, when everything can feel politicized, it is sometimes hard to get to the heart of a matter—not what’s strategic for one side or the other, but what is right. 

Reverend Kelly Vandehey of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Salinas has signed onto a letter, adding his signature alongside those of more than 100 faith leaders in the state, that aims to bring moral clarity to a policy matter. They call upon Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute the sentences of everyone on death row. 

Their letter is not about politics or about the policies that most effectively provide justice to victims of crimes, or about rehabilitation records of people who are incarcerated—it is about the morality of something I think we can all agree, if we search within ourselves, is wrong. There is time for intellectual argument but sometimes, we need these clear calls to morality. 

“As spiritual leaders, we are often sought for guidance on complex moral and ethical issues, and we have come to a unified conclusion: the death penalty fails to serve justice and perpetuates harm in ways that are antithetical to our shared values,” the group wrote. Nothing, it seems, could be clearer. 

“We hold fast to the belief in the sacredness and dignity of all human life and the inherent capacity for redemption and change. This belief compels us to oppose the death penalty and to call for a justice system that prioritizes accountability, healing, and the restoration of community,” the letter continues. “The death penalty is a relic of a punitive system that fails to create safety or address the root causes of harm.”

Newsom already issued a moratorium on capital punishment in 2019, suspending executions in California. But the policy remains on the books; as of Sept. 10, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, there are 581 incarcerated people on death row in the state. 

Four of those are people convicted of crimes in Monterey County: Joseph Manibusa, 47, for crimes committed in 1998 when he was 19; Ronald Moore, 75, for crimes committed at age 47 in 1998; Kenneth Bivert, 55, for crimes when he was 27 in 1997; Kris Hughes, 63, for crimes when he was 27, in 1989.

A group of signatories to the letter held a press conference on Sept. 11 in San Francisco urging Newsom to commute the sentences of all Californians on death row. (Their event was tied to the opening yesterday of the opera Dead Man Walking.)

“For every nine people executed nationwide, one innocent person has been exonerated,” the group wrote. “These are risks we cannot take when human lives hang in the balance.”