The killings shed light upon Half Moon Bay farmworkers’ deplorable workplace and living conditions. In a visit to the mourning community after the shootings, Newsom noted that farmworkers, many of whom are migrants, often labor for sub-minimum wage at just $9 an hour and are forced to live in on-site shipping containers, as was the case for Zhao and some of the shooting victims.
For months after the rampage, questions swirled about whether Wagstaffe would seek to execute the man officials have said is responsible for it.
Technically, the death penalty still exists in California, and prosecutors can seek it. But no one has been put to death in the state in nearly 20 years. In 2019, Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions and closed the death chamber at San Quentin, the recently renovated 19th-century prison overlooking San Francisco Bay.
Support for capital punishment has historically been low among Californians. In a 2021 poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, a plurality of voters favored abolishing the death penalty.
Of those surveyed, 44% said they would vote yes on a potential amendment to the state constitution to repeal the death penalty, while 35% favored allowing executions and 21% were undecided. The death penalty has not gone before state voters since 2016, when an effort to repeal it failed.
The outcome of November’s election raised further questions about whether voters are souring on progressive criminal justice policy. Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, which increased penalties for drug and theft crimes, and rejected Proposition 6, which would have banned forced labor in prisons and jails.
Progressive district attorneys in Alameda and Los Angeles counties were also voted out of office, leading some to speculate about a potential sea change in attitudes toward reform efforts of previous decades.
KQED’s Keith Mizuguchi contributed to this report.
