California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that he is commuting the death sentences of all 548 people on the state’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in what is described as the largest mass clemency in American history.
Newsom made the announcement on Thursday, November 5, in a three-page open letter addressed to all Californians. He wrote that he was acting on his long-held conviction that society was stronger when it rejected state-sanctioned killing, and argued that the death penalty was unjust, error-prone and incompatible with the state’s values.
California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere, and no one has been executed in the state since 2006. Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions shortly after taking office in 2019, calling the death penalty a failure and citing serious concerns about racial discrimination, high costs and the risk of human error.
The commutations will not all take effect at once. Under the California Constitution, a governor cannot grant clemency to anyone twice convicted of a felony without a recommendation from the state Supreme Court, supported by at least four justices. That requirement applies to 382 of the 548 prisoners, while the remaining 166 can have their sentences commuted immediately.
Newsom has written to the court asking it to issue its recommendations by the end of the year, so that he can complete the process before his term ends on January 4, 2027, when his successor, Xavier Becerra, is sworn in. If the court does not act in time, the requests would not carry over to the next governor.
The governor’s office said the action does not repeal California’s death penalty, which remains on the books as a sentencing option unless voters or the legislature remove it, and could be restored to practice by a future governor. It applies only to the sentences of people currently on death row.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the move more than doubles the total number of clemencies granted in capital cases in the United States over the past 50 years, and marks the eighth time in the modern era that a governor has granted clemency to everyone sentenced to death in their state.
Reactions have been divided. Supporters, including murder victims’ families, law enforcement and civil rights leaders cited by the governor’s office, welcomed the decision. Others, including some victims’ relatives and death penalty supporters, have criticised it, arguing that the sentences were imposed by juries and should stand.
Newsom, a Democrat who is widely expected to seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, has long opposed capital punishment. His decision, taken in the final weeks of his governorship, now rests with the state’s highest court, which must decide whether nearly 70 percent of the commutations can proceed.