by William Proctor
On the 13th day of March 2019, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, enacted Executive Order N-09-19 instituting a moratorium on the death penalty in California. It read in part: Whereas California’s death penalty is unfair, unjust, [ … ] unevenly applied to people of color, people with mental disabilities, and people who cannot afford costly legal representation, [ … ] innocent people have been sentenced to death, [ … ] I will not oversee the execution of any person while Governor. What is this “system” the Governor is referring to, and why is it unfair, unjust, and discriminatory? How do we reform this system?
The word system is defined as a group of related parts that move and work together. In this instance, that would include the laws, judges, prosecutors, and police officers who move and work together to prosecute the justice system. Therefore, if the system is 
unfair, unjust, and discriminatory, then it must by definition be this group of people that are moving and working together to make it that way. It should be noted that this same group of people who move and work together to prosecute the death penalty in California are also responsible for the entire criminal justice system in California.
Someone might ask, why aren’t these judges, prosecutors, and police officers who move and work this criminal justice system being held accountable for the unfair, unjust, and discriminatory condition it’s in? The answer is that they cannot be held accountable. Section 812.6. of the Government Code is entitled, Institution or Prosecution of Judicial or Administrative. It’s an archaic rule codified in 1963, and it answers that question like this: A public employee is not liable for injury caused by his instituting or prosecuting any judicial or administrative processing within the scope of his employment, even if he acts maliciously without probable cause (Gov. Code § 821.6.). This group of people who move and work this justice system are immune from any liability, criminally or civilly, even if they act maliciously. They are above the law.
Granted, under the leadership of people like Gavin Newsom, the State of California has been working to fix some of the unfair, unjust, and discriminatory laws governing race, youth, and the elderly, as well as revisiting some of the cases of wrongly convicted and sentenced. But just reform cannot be accomplished until we remove these archaic laws that give potentially corrupt judges, prosecutors, and police officers immunity for unfair, unjust, and discriminatory moving and working of our justice system. Just reform must include Government Codes that hold these judges, prosecutors, and police officers accountable for malicious unfair, unjust, and discriminatory behavior.
