Governor Gavin Newsom wants to repurpose San Quentin prison.
On Friday, he announces that the 171-year-old penitentiary would be converted from a maximum-security prison into a rehabilitation and education facility.
San Quentin currently houses about 4,000 inmates. It has the largest death row in the country.
Last October, Cal Poly graduate Scott Peterson was moved from San Quentin to Mule Creek state prison east of Sacramento. Peterson murdered his wife, Laci back in 2002. The California supreme court overturned his death sentence last year, because potential jurors were improperly dismissed for saying they personally disagreed with the death penalty but would be willing to follow the law and impose it.
A state judge is now considering if Peterson deserves a new trial after the justices separately said that his jury may have been tainted by a biased juror.
