Charles Ng gets life while 11 to 25 Californians got death.

That is the bottom line of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 11th hour decision in the waning days of his eight-year term as governor to commute sentences of 548 so-called men and women who are on California’s death row.

Ng is one of those people that Newsom said he couldn’t in good conscious allow the state to execute due to the possibility of a wrongful conviction and it being morally wrong for the state to kill.

More about Ng in a moment.

Let’s explore the timing of Newsom’s generous act that was more than politically convenient although Newsom said the foundation was laid in morality.

Newsom in 2019 suspended the death penalty for the duration of the time he was in office.

Three years prior, California voters rejected Proposition 62 that sought to abolish the death penalty while approving Proposition 66 designed to speed up the execution process.

The governor who so famously has stood up for the right of California voters in the face of actions by the Trump administration to tamper with ballot casting procedures apparently doesn’t extend that “respect” to voters when it comes to decisions they make.

Perhaps he was channeling his inner-Trump by convincing himself there was election fraud in 2016 and the vote to abolish the death penalty actually passed while the measure to speed the execution process up failed.

Some might call it situational ethics when it comes to the sanctity of the electoral process, others might call it being a political chicken.

Had Newsom issued his blanket commutations prior to seeking a second term as governor, the odds are overwhelming he’d been a one-termer given there never has been a poll — let alone a ballot box vote — where the majority of Californians wanted the death penalty abolished.

Forget the fact that the Democratic socialist movement — a force that Newsom must deal with if he wants the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — strongly opposes the concept of the death penalty.

What better way to demonstrate your moxie as presidential timber among those that believe aging or old-school Democrats are out of touch with the movement than make a grand gesture by granting clemency to 548 convicted murderers — many of which are repeat offenders and serial killers. After all, it effectively clears out the largest Death Row in the nation.

In fairness to Newsom, the odds are California isn’t likely to be joining Florida any time soon in trying to establish a new record for annual executions.

The Golden State hasn’t executed anyone since 2006 when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death for the murder of a witness and two others who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Allen was the 13th and last person executed since 1977 when the California Legislature changed the wording of a statute to meet state Supreme Court requirements effectively reinstating the death penalty.

Prior to that in 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the death penalty only to have it reinstated months later by voters via Proposition 17. The state’s high court struck down the death penalty again in 1976 but lawmakers’ addressing the court’s concerns about mental competency put the death penalty back in place.

With one stroke of the pen, Newsom negated decades of work by prosecutors and law enforcement to secure justice for more than 1,200 murder victims.

Now let’s look at one of the 548 “souls” whose lives Newsom spared.

Ng sticks out for a number of reasons, but especially for the fact there was no doubt he was guilty thanks to graphic video tapes he made.

The bunker he built for the raping, torture, killing, and desecration of his victims’ remains was just 30 or so miles as the crow flies to the northeast of Manteca in the Wilseyville area on the edge of eastern Calaveras County.

A retired FBI agent who had spent his career handling heinous crimes and who was hired as an investigator by one of the 10 defense attorneys Ng went through before being allowed to defend himself, shared how after viewing the first tape of many logged into evidence that he was so sickened that he ended up throwing up.

The tools of Ng’s torture trade were common items you’d find in a home workshop such as vices, hacksaws, pruning shears, and pliers.

He had at least 11 victims that were to DNA from 45 pounds of crushed and burned bones found buried near the bunker. Photos and videos of torture and rape led authorities to indicate there were likely 25 victims overall killed between 1983 and 1985.

It included two young couples and their infant sons.

“I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency,” Newsom wrote in an open letter regarding his blanket commutations.

Given the deeds of Ng and his 547 compadres on death row, the words of San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas are more apropos.

Freitas called Newsom’s decision a “mass erasure of justice.”

And that’s putting it politely.