Some of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley’s most notorious killers are among the roughly 550 death row inmates on a list to be spared by Gov. Gavin Newsom before he leaves office, according to a letter he released on Thursday.
Newsom is set to leave office in January after terming out and can grant clemency for inmates with a single felony conviction. For those with multiple felony convictions, they would need to be approved by four of the seven justices on the California Supreme Court. Clemency reverts a death sentence to life without parole.
“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 the letter.
Newsom announced a moratorium on death row inmates in 2019, meaning the practice of capital punishment was put on hold in the state.
The last person put to death in California was Clarence Allen Ray, who was killed by lethal injection in 2006 for three murders and for conspiracy after a Fresno store robbery. He was convicted in 1982 of the murders of Bryon William Schletewitz, Douglas Scott White and Josephine Linda Rocha.
Newsom has previously pointed to his Catholic faith as a reason he stopped executions. He has also noted the disproportionate use of the death penalty on people of color and the possibility of executing innocent people.
Of the death row inmates on the list for clemency, 11 were charged in Fresno County, 14 in Tulare County, six in Kings County, two in Madera County, one in Mariposa County and one in Merced County. Clemency would revert their sentences to life without parole.
Here’s a list of some of the most notorious:
Marcus Wesson, Fresno: A mass murderer and child rapist, Wesson murdered nine of his children in 2004 during a custody dispute that led to a police standoff in Fresno.
He believed in a religion of polygamy and incest, and gave the members of his family “vampire names.” In 2005, he was convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder and 14 sex crimes.
Marcus Wesson is seen during a court hearing in Fresno in February 2005. Eric Paul Zamora ezamora@fresnobee.com
Royal Clark Jr., Fresno: He was sentenced to death for the 1991 brutal strangling of Laurie Farkas, 14, and assault on her friend Angie Higgins, 15, at Lost Lake. He was later convicted for the 1989 slaying of Danielle Marie Haddon in Long Beach.
Keith Zon Doolin, Fresno: A long-haul Fresno truck driver, Doolin was sentenced to death row in 1996 for shooting six sex workers between Nov. 2, 1994, and Sept. 19, 1995. Inez Espinoza and Peggy Tucker were killed. Alice Alva, Debbie Cruz, Marlene Mendibles and Stephanie Kachman were seriously wounded in the attacks.
Cary Stayner, Mariposa: Convicted in 1999 of the killing of two women and two teen girls, Stayner was a handyman who worked in a motel near Yosemite National Park.
Stayner was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murders between February and July 1999, including victims Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso, a family friend from Argentina. They were touring Yosemite and stayed in the lodge where Stayner worked.
The headless body of a Yosemite worker and the fourth victim, Joie Armstrong, 26, was found in July 1999.
Cary Stayner Leaves Mariposa Superior Court for the last time on January 23, 2002 with Mariposa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rich Parrish. Al Golub Modesto Bee
Cuitlahuac Tahua Rivera, Merced: Perhaps Merced’s most notorious slaying, Cuitlahuac Tahua “Tao” Rivera was a gang member when he gunned down Merced police Officer Stephan Gray during a traffic stop on April 15, 2004.
Rivera shot Gray during a foot pursuit. He was convicted in 2007. A statue honoring Gray stands outside the Merced Police Department.
Cuitlahuac Tahua “Tao” Rivera, convicted of killing Merced Police Department Officer Stephan Gray. Merced Sun-Star
Pedro Rangel Jr., Madera: On the night of Oct. 7, 1995, Pedro Rangel Jr. and his son, Pedro Rangel III, went to the Madera home of Chuck Durbin to hunt down Juan Uribe. The elder Rangel shot Uribe and Durbin, as Durbin’s wife and three small children watched.
Prosecutors said the Rangels were seeking revenge for a grazing head wound Uribe caused to the younger Rangel. The father was convicted in 1998 and put on death row.
The Young brothers, Tulare: Brothers Donald and Timothy Young entered the Pato’s Place bar in Tulare during a 1995 armed robbery that ended with shotgun executions of five people. The bar owner was shot, too, but survived. The Youngs were sent to death row in April 2006.
Gene Estel McCurdy, Kings: Sentenced to death in 1997, McCurdy, a former Lemoore sailor, was convicted of the kidnapping murder of 8-year-old Maria Joanna Piceno, whose body was found in a Kern County creek two years earlier. He was also convicted of sex crimes against the child.
This story was originally published November 5, 2026 at 3:05 PM.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.