California Governor Gavin Newsom, who will sign an executive order halting executions in his state, became the president's Twitter target as Donald Trump turned his fire on the governor for his shortsighted decision.

Newsom cited his "moral conflict" with the death penalty as his reason.

Fox News:

The order will halt all executions performed at San Quentin State Prison while Newsom, a Democrat, is governor but leaves all convictions intact. A future governor can undo the order.

"The intentional killing of another person is wrong.  And as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual," Newsom said in a prepared statement obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Newsom has been a vocal opponent of the death penalty and has argued it is susceptible to human error.  Many have criticized the death penalty as being racially biased and too expensive.  Since 1973, 164 prisoners nationwide have been wrongly convicted and freed from death row, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Trump mentions what Newsom forgot in his "moral conflict."

Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2019

Certainly, some of the victim's families agree with the governor. But many more do not.

Sacramento Bee:

Disgusting.  Appalling.  A punch to the gut.

Law enforcement leaders and family members waiting to see their loved ones' killers put to death reacted with these sentiments and others Wednesday to Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement that he was effectively scrapping California's death penalty and granting reprieves to more than 700 death row inmates.

"It's just an open wound that never heals," said Richard Mobilio, whose 31-year-old son David, a Red Bluff police officer, was gunned down in an ambush in 2002 and who has been waiting for the killer to face execution since the 2005 conviction in the case.

"We're not forgivers and forgetters in this regard," Mobilio said.  "I hate to be so obviously a case of 'vengeance is mine,' but I have to be honest with you ... I want to see him pay the penalty."

Mickel is now 40, and Mobilio said Wednesday that he still holds out hope that the inmate may someday face execution under a different governor.

"If there is a prospect that he pays that penalty, I fully support it," he said.  "Whatever it takes legislatively or through whatever vehicles there might be."

Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter Polly was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and murdered in 1993 by Richard Allen Davis, had a similar reaction.

"Obviously, I'm appalled," Klaas said as he was conducting a series of media interviews about the governor's decision.  "I'm appalled by him doing that, and I've got plenty of reasons."

Newsom's order runs counter to a 2016 referendum that was approved by California voters to speed up executions.  So Newsom has put his own personal "moral conflict" with the death penalty ahead of the wishes of California residents.

The people, in their collective wisdom, have expressed unmistakable sentiment in favor of the death penalty.  Newsom has not only thumbed his nose at the voters, but turned his back on the families of murder victims.  But what's that compared to all the political goodwill he'll get from liberals and black activists?  His personal feelings on the morality of the death penalty aside, Newsom has made a political calculation that voters who oppose this move will forget about it before he runs for re-election.