Phyllis Loya, the mother of a slain police officer, described her "immense anger" and "worst day of her life" following California Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in the state.
Loya's son, Larry Lasater Jr., was a police officer in Pittsburg, California, who was shot and killed on April 23, 2005, while attempting to arrest two robbery suspects. The suspect who killed Lasater, Alexander Rashad Hamilton, was sentenced to death, a sentence now commuted by Newsom.
"It's been very tough. It's very emotional," Loya said in an interview, expressing disbelief at Newsom's stated moral reasons for the commutation. She accused the governor of being a "political animal" whose decision was timed to follow the midterm elections, suggesting it was a calculated move for a potential presidential run.
Loya stated that Newsom does not consider victims and has ignored the will of the people by continuing to block executions, even though California voters have supported the death penalty. She felt retraumatized not by the killer, but by the legislative and executive actions that she believes undermine justice.
"He wants to be president. So I was thinking he was testing the water, and the election made him go for it today. That was the only thing that held off his decision," Loya said.
For Loya, Newsom's decision represents a "double blow," adding to the ongoing pain of the legal proceedings for the other suspect in her son's death, who received a life sentence. She expressed a lack of confidence in the justice system to uphold the life sentence without parole.
Lasater, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, had served with the Pittsburg Police Department for five years. His son was born two and a half months after his death. Loya tearfully recounted that the closest her son ever came to holding his child was a sonogram "buried with him in his lifeless hands."
"Those bullets that killed my son killed a part of me and a part of everybody that loved him," she said.