SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n
California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> said Thursday that he\u2019ll change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.<\/p>\n \u201cI take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California\u2019s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,\u201d Newsom said in a public letter.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, who\u2019s long been opposed to the death penalty, placed a moratorium<\/a> on executions in California in 2019.<\/p>\n His latest move came after he realized \u201cthe limits of what government can justly accomplish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people currently sentenced to death in California, of whom 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.<\/p>\n The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court\u2019s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, which means the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or roughly 70%, according to Newsom’s office. Newsom sent a letter to the court requesting that approval<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Newsom\u2019s action represents the largest mass clemency in American history. If they are all approved, it would reduce the U.S. death row population by nearly 30%, the center said.<\/p>\n California voters upheld the death penalty<\/p>\n Americans have long been divided<\/a> over the death penalty. Nearly half of U.S. states have banned capital punishment outright, but executions are still carried out routinely around the country. On Thursday alone, Florida, Alabama and Indiana were scheduled to perform lethal injections<\/a>.<\/p>\n Californians voted to uphold the death penalty in 2012 and 2016 ballot measures. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row<\/a> in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n Among the most notorious convicted killers on California\u2019s death row are Richard Allen Davis<\/a>, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Randy Kraft, the so-called \u201cScorecard Killer\u201d who kept a list of his 16 victims in the 1970s and \u201980s. Other prominent killers, including Scott Peterson and the Manson family members, received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.<\/p>\n Jess Nichol, Klaas’ sister, said she previously believed Davis deserved the death penalty, but her views evolved.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system tells survivors that execution matters to our healing,\u201d Nichol said in a statement. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a distraction from what we actually need.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it will surface painful memories for crime victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,\u201d Newsom wrote.<\/p>\n The American Civil Liberties Union, which has said the implementation of the death penalty reflects racial bias, applauded the announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThese commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,\u201d Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.<\/p>\n The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California\u2019s death penalty statute, alleging it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n Victims’ groups and prosecutors decry the decision<\/p>\n Patricia Wenskunas, founder of the California advocacy nonprofit Crime Survivors, which opposed the abolition of the death penalty, criticized Newsom’s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart hurts for every one of the victims and every one of their family members,\u201d she said, calling the decision \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve Herr, whose son Sam Herr was murdered along with his friend Julie Kibuishi by Daniel Wozniak in 2010, said he was \u201cabsolutely disgusted\u201d by the governor’s decision. He said the death of his son’s killer would have meant closure.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen somebody commits such a heinous crime, they do not deserve to live,\u201d Herr said. \u201cTo hear what Newsom just did \u2026 he\u2019s just an outright coward.\u201d<\/p>\n The California District Attorneys Association condemned the decision. Last month, the group sent a letter to Newsom expressing \u201cgrave concerns\u201d about him considering the move and warning that such a sweeping action would inflict additional pain on victims\u2019 relatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has disregarded the decisions of hundreds of jurors and judges, and the anguish of families who lost loved ones to the worst crimes imaginable,\u201d CDAA President Jeannine M. Pacioni said in a statement. \u201cThe victims were never given a commutation. Their families were never given a choice. They deserve far better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow called the move a \u201csickening abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n Dow referenced Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford, two women who were kidnapped, raped and murdered by Rex Allan Krebs in 1999, and Kesha Gurke, a 19-month-old girl tortured and murdered by Michael Whisenhunt in 1995.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Luis Obispo County juries sentenced both men to death. A unanimous California Supreme Court affirmed both judgments. Their families have waited decades for the State of California to keep its word. Today, the Governor broke it,\u201d Dow said.<\/p>\n Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also condemned the decision, calling it \u201cmercy for the wolves and while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n Other governors have taken similar actions<\/p>\n Newsom has said in the past that it is wrong for the government to kill its citizens and that capital punishment in practice has discriminated<\/a> against mentally ill people and people of color.<\/p>\n Other governors have granted broad clemency to all death row prisoners in their states, including Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon in 2022 and Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado in 2020. Both are Democrats.<\/p>\n In 2024, President Joe Biden also granted clemency to 37 out of 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death.<\/p>\n Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who will take over from Newsom<\/a> in January, has said he will extend the state\u2019s moratorium on the death penalty.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he\u2019ll change more than 500 death sentences in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[199181,2820,7,199100,2926,9,8,400,143758,73563,8815,199180,724,47515,47516,199179,6848,23615,199183,457,709,473,11294,1637,2530,671,199182,77110,8948,32914,121,225,35387,669,2734],"class_list":["post-520090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-548-death-sentences","tag-app","tag-california","tag-california-death-sentence","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-california-stories","tag-capital-punishment","tag-channel","tag-commute-sentences","tag-criminal-justice","tag-death-penalty","tag-death-row","tag-death-sentences","tag-decision","tag-download","tag-execution-moratorium","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-governor-newsom","tag-kcra","tag-kcra-3","tag-life","tag-life-without-parole","tag-more-coverage","tag-newsom-decision","tag-open-letter","tag-parole","tag-possibility","tag-sacramento","tag-state","tag-state-prison","tag-subscribe","tag-top-california-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520090","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=520090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}