Newsom commutes more than 500 California death sentences

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, commuted the death sentences of more than 500 people on the state's death row on Thursday, converting them to life without the possibility of parole and ensuring they cannot be executed by future administrations.

The commutation covers 529 men and 19 women — 548 people in total — and amounts to the largest clearing of a US death row in modern history. California holds the largest death row population in the western hemisphere, Newsom's office said.

The decision followed the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, which prompted global outrage and fresh calls for a nationwide pause on capital punishment.

In a letter announcing the move, Newsom wrote that state-sanctioned killing was "incompatible with California's values", undermined the foundations of the legal system and diminished everyone. "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," he wrote.

A long-standing moratorium

Newsom has opposed the death penalty for years. He imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and dismantled the death chamber at San Quentin prison, transferring people with death sentences to other facilities where they had more freedom of movement and access to programmes. California's last execution was in 2006, but hundreds of prisoners remained under death sentences.

His office said 220 of the 548 had waited 15 years or more to be appointed habeas counsel, the legal representation they are entitled to in order to challenge their cases, and 139 had waited 20 years or more. Without the moratorium, 45 people are considered to have exhausted their appeals and would face immediate execution.

Newsom called the decision among the most difficult of his career, saying he knew the announcement could surface excruciating memories for victims' families but believed the action was righteous. The California supreme court must review and approve clemency grants in cases where the person was convicted of multiple felonies, he said.

Reaction

The American Civil Liberties Union and prominent death penalty opponents, including Martin Luther King III and the lawyer Bryan Stevenson, praised the announcement. Jeanne Woodford, a former California prisons director who oversaw four executions, noted that more than 200 people nationwide had been exonerated after being sentenced to death. "As someone who has carried out executions in California, I am haunted by the fear that we will execute an innocent person," she said.

Jess Nichol, whose 12-year-old sister Polly Klaas was killed in 1993 in a case that helped drive tough-on-crime laws, said she once supported executing her sister's killer but changed her mind. "Whether he's executed has absolutely nothing to do with my recovery or with real public safety," she said.

Governors from both parties have taken similar steps: an Illinois Republican commuted all 167 death sentences in the state in 2003 before leaving office, and North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, commuted 15 death sentences on his final day in office in 2024.

Support for the death penalty has declined across the US, but Democrats have at times avoided mass commutations for fear of being portrayed as soft on crime. Newsom has backed criminal justice reform, including rehabilitative prison programmes, though some advocates have accused him of giving in to political pressure — for example, when he vetoed the release of high-profile prisoners who had been granted parole. He is seen as a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2028. California is one of 27 states that still have the death penalty on the books.

Source: The Guardian.