The “positive, healing environment” description sounds “a little too California,” says law professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.

“That could arouse the ire of the right wing,” he continues. “The irony is that prison reformers might gag at that. Because they don’t think of such a thing as a ‘healing environment’ in prisons. We don’t think it’s healing and are not even sure it’s rehabilitative. We think it mitigates the harm of prisons.”

At any rate, it would probably take a future governor many years to reverse Newsom’s actions and revive executions.

“I think it’s possible there won’t be an execution in California for decades,” Weisberg says.

But Weisberg sees it differently.

“It’s political symbolism,” the professor says. ”It gets into the voters’ mind the idea that we don’t need the death penalty anymore. It’s kind of a psychological move by Newsom.”