Newsom commutes sentences of all 548 on California's death row

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that he will commute the sentences of all 548 people on the state's death row, the largest mass clemency in United States history.

The move effectively clears California's death row. Those affected will serve life sentences without the possibility of parole instead. The state has not executed a prisoner for 20 years.

"I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us," Newsom said in an open letter.

Court review required

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) said about two-thirds of the commutations must be reviewed by the California Supreme Court before they become final, as state law requires that step for anyone with multiple felony convictions.

California holds the largest death row in the country. Newsom's decision will cut the national death row population by nearly 30 percent.

Support for capital punishment in the US has largely declined since the 1990s but still holds majority backing. A Pew Research Center poll released in August found 66 percent of Americans supported the punishment for people convicted of murder, while roughly 73 percent acknowledged a risk of executing an innocent person.

Costs, appeals and exonerations

Death penalty cases often involve long and arduous appeals, so many death row inmates are never executed. Twenty-three states have banned the practice outright, and others have effectively abandoned it even though it remains on the books.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has championed the death penalty for serious federal crimes. In April, his administration pledged to expand federal executions, including by employing firing squads.

Proponents argue the punishment deters crime. Critics say decades of scholarship indicate otherwise, and point to ethical and logistical problems including expense. According to the DPIC, California has spent $6bn on the death penalty since 1978 while carrying out just 13 executions in that time. The centre also says at least 203 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the US have since been exonerated.

Robin Maher, the DPIC's executive director, called the announcement "a decisive moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States," adding that no other governor has granted universal clemency at this scale. She said Newsom had "irrevocably changed California's relationship with the death penalty."

Newsom has served as governor for nearly eight years and has reached California's term limits. His second and final term ends in January 2027, and he will be replaced by former US Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra on January 4. The announcement came days after strong Democratic results in the US midterm elections.

Source: Al Jazeera.