{"id":519893,"date":"2026-11-05T22:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/519893\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:48:16","slug":"newsom-moves-to-empty-californias-death-row-by-commuting-548-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/519893\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom Moves to Empty California\u2019s Death Row by Commuting 548 Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

The historic move, announced as the governor prepares to leave office and ahead of a widely expected presidential run, would convert every sentence to life without parole.<\/p>\n

Nov 5, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 2:01 pm PT<\/p>\n

Scott Shafer<\/a>Jared Servantez<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom attends a rally alongside California Democratic Party members, labor leaders and advocates in San Francisco on Oct. 23, 2026. Gov. Newsom said he will convert every remaining death sentence to life without the possibility of parole in a letter to Californians on Thursday.
\n\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> announced Thursday that he will commute the sentences of all 548 people on California\u2019s death row to life without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

The governor, who instituted a moratorium on executions two months after he took office, said he made the move based on a moral opposition to state-sanctioned killing and a belief that it undermines the foundation of California\u2019s legal system. He had been weighing the decision<\/a> for months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency,\u201d Newsom said in an open letter<\/a> to Californians.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s move represents the largest act of mass clemency in U.S. history, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.<\/p>\n

More than half of the cases, those involving people who were convicted of more than one felony, will require review by the California Supreme Court under the state\u2019s Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin on July 26, 2023. In March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state would seek to transform the maximum security prison into a center focused on the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

California has not executed anyone since 2006 as legal challenges, concerns over the state\u2019s lethal injection protocol and, finally, Newsom\u2019s moratorium have essentially disabled the state\u2019s death penalty. Under Newsom, the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison, where death sentences were once carried out, has been dismantled.<\/p>\n

Still, as Newsom considered whether to commute the remaining death sentences, opponents of capital punishment said such decisive action would hold deep consequence, especially given its scale. California has more people on death row than any other state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are propping up the death penalty for the entire world,\u201d said Natasha Minsker, an attorney and consultant to anti-death penalty organizations. \u201cAnd it\u2019s time for California to be out of the business of endorsing the death penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom acknowledged that commuting every death sentence would not sit well with some victims of crime and their families. He heard from them before and after he issued the moratorium in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daniel Zingale was the governor\u2019s lead advisor on the moratorium instituted by executive order in 2019. As Newsom contemplated his decision, Zingale said, he wanted data, legal and budget analyses and meetings with crime victims and their families \u2014 but \u201che never once showed any interest in looking at a poll about it, or what you would consider the politics of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the national political consequences of commuting the state\u2019s death sentences are far from certain.<\/p>\n

Since a peak in the \u201ctough on crime\u201d era of the 1990s, public support for capital punishment has been steadily declining, especially against the alternative of life without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

\"\"Inmates at Chino State Prison exercise in the yard on Dec. 10, 2010, in Chino, California.\u00a0(Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Gallup has measured public opinion on capital punishment in the U.S. each year since 1937. In 2025, its most recent survey<\/a>, just 52% said they supported the death penalty for people who commit murder \u2014 down from 80% in 1994.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the United States is right now in the middle of a national reconsideration of capital punishment,\u201d said Austin Sarat, a professor of law and politics at Amherst College who studies the death penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarat said he doubted that commuting death sentences would significantly haunt Newsom in a presidential campaign, noting that battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin have banned capital punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we\u2019re on the road to abolition,\u201d Sarat said. \u201cAnd abolition in this country is going to come not fast and not smoothly. Two steps forward, one step back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about his state budget proposal on May 14, 2026, in Sacramento. \u00a0(Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n

In deciding to commute the state\u2019s death sentences, Newsom said he counseled survivors of crime and victims\u2019 families, public safety experts, community leaders, prison officials and jurors who served in death penalty cases.<\/p>\n

He noted that while some had urged him not to grant clemency across the board and to exclude those convicted of the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d crimes, he learned from speaking with those harmed \u201cthat each experiences their loss as the worst of the worst\u201d and decided against trying to make such a distinction himself.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Newsom said, he hopes that converting all of the state\u2019s death sentences to life without the possibility of parole will provide a sense of finality for victims and their families as \u201cthese offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honor their victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also acknowledge that this clemency action will anger and hurt some Californians. This will always weigh heavily on me,\u201d Newsom said in his letter. \u201cAs Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The historic move, announced as the governor prepares to leave office and ahead of a widely expected presidential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-519893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}