California DA says Gavin Newsom's 'cruel' death row clemency stabs crime victims 'in the heart'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates on the state's death row, a move that Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer criticized as stabbing crime victims "in the heart."

Speaking on Spitzer took direct aim at Newsom, saying his decision is "immoral" and arguing that it disregards the extensive judicial review given to death penalty cases.

"He literally stabbed in the heart many victims who have suffered through an already-unjust justice system in California that already revictimizes victims over and over and over," Spitzer said.

NEWSOMS DEATH-ROW COMMUTATIONS SPARK DA REVOLT AS PROSECUTORS WARN OF LEGAL FIGHT

Among the victims' relatives criticizing the decision is Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint and murdered in 1993 by condemned killer Davis was sentenced to death in 1996, and the California Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentence in 2009.

"Baby killers and cop killers and spree killers and serial killers have all found an ally in Gavin Newsom," Klaas told Fox News Digital in October.

MICHAEL RUIZ: CALIFORNIA PROSECUTORS REVOLT AFTER NEWSOM ORDERS STATE'S WORST KILLERS OFF DEATH ROW

Newsom announced the plan for mass commutations in a letter on Nov. 5, in which he told Californians he would exercise his "constitutional clemency authority to commute all California death sentences to life without the possibility of parole."

The governor said he believes state-sanctioned killing is "incompatible with California's values" and argued that the death penalty cannot be applied fairly, pointing to the risk of executing innocent people.

GOP GOV DEWINE URGES OHIO TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY, SAYS IT IS NO LONGER A DETERRENT

Other death row inmates who could be affected by the commutations include Charles Ng, who was convicted of killing 11 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and Cary Stayner, who was convicted of murdering four people near Yosemite National Park in 1999 and was sentenced to death for three of the killings.

"Well, it was callous. It was calculated. It was mean. It was ugly. It was ill-spirited. It was [a] lack of any empathy. It was immoral," Spitzer said of Newsom's decision. "I could think of so many adjectives to describe the behavior of the cruel governor."

When reached for comment by regarding Spitzer's criticisms, Newsom's office pointed to the governor's Nov. 5 letter announcing the commutations.

In the letter, Newsom acknowledged the emotional toll on grieving families, writing, "This decision is among the most difficult of my career, not because I doubt its nec