California Governor Gavin Newsom has commuted the death sentences of all 548 people on death row in the state, replacing them with life in prison. The decision applies to every inmate currently awaiting execution in the state.
In a letter, Newsom said the offenders would now be allowed to “die in obscurity” while the state continues to “forever remember and honour the victims”. He said he was using his constitutional clemency authority to convert the sentences to life without the possibility of parole.
Governor cites moral and legal objections to executions
Newsom said that after nearly 30 years in public office he had come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish. He said he firmly believed state-sanctioned killing was incompatible with California’s values, undermined the foundations of the legal system and diminished each person.
He described the decision as a difficult but “righteous action”. He acknowledged that many Californians feel those who commit brutal crimes deserve to die, but said he had concluded that “the state cannot morally kill them”.
Newsom said that by every measure California’s death penalty system “is a failure”. He argued that it had not been and could not be fairly applied, resulting in the conviction of innocent people. He added that life without parole is the most severe punishment the state can lawfully and ethically impose.
He said the action would anger and hurt some Californians and would “always weigh heavily on me”. He wrote that as governor he alone bore responsibility for the decision and its impact.
Limited practical effect in a state with few executions
The decision is largely symbolic, as California has not executed a prisoner since 2006. Experts, however, say it could save millions of dollars in court costs each year.
Only 13 inmates have been killed since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978. California has historically held the largest death row population in the country. Because individual states prosecute crimes and order executions, much of the power in such cases rests with state governors.
The move comes after the high-profile botched execution of a woman in Tennessee in late September. It also comes at a time when executions have been on the rise across the United States.
Newsom’s future and the federal death penalty debate
Newsom, a Democrat who leads the most populous US state, has been discussed as a possible 2028 presidential contender. He is term limited and is winding down his final months in office. Fellow Democrat Xavier Becerra is projected to succeed him after the midterm elections on Tuesday.
On the federal level, President Donald Trump, a long-time supporter of the death penalty, has described capital punishment as an essential tool for deterring and punishing the most heinous crimes. In 2020, during his first term, he ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on federal executions by ordering 13 executions over a six-month period.
The federal moratorium returned under President Joe Biden. On the first day of Trump’s second term in 2025, he signed an executive order reinstating the death penalty. No federal executions have been carried out since he signed it, although both the federal government and individual states can order executions.
