California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he will change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, although the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.
“I am taking this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned murder is inconsistent with California values, undermines the foundation of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a public letter.
Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, long opposed to the death penalty, declared a moratorium on executions in California in 2019.
His latest decision came after realizing “the limits of what government can legitimately accomplish,” he said.
Newsom decided to grant clemency to 548 people currently on death row in California, including 529 men and 19 women, according to figures provided by his office.
The state constitution requires approval from the California Supreme Court to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a crime more than once, meaning the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or about 70 percent, according to Newsom’s office. Newsom sent a letter to the court requesting this approval.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Newsom’s action represents the largest mass clemency in American history. If all are approved, it would reduce the U.S. death row population by nearly 30 percent, the center said.
California voters support the death penalty
Americans have long been divided on the death penalty. Nearly half of U.S. states have banned capital punishment outright, but executions still take place regularly across the country. On Thursday alone, Florida, Alabama and Indiana were scheduled to carry out lethal injections.
Californians voted to retain the death penalty in the 2012 and 2016 elections. No one has been executed in the state since 2006, and California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
Among California’s most famous death row killers are Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Randy Kraft, the so-called “Scorecard Killer” who kept a list of his 16 victims in the 1970s and 1980s. Other prominent killers, including Scott Peterson and members of the Manson Family, have received death sentences, which were later commuted in prison for life.
Jess Nichol, Klaas’ sister, said she previously thought Davis deserved the death penalty, but her opinion has evolved.
“The system tells survivors that execution is important to our healing,” Nichol said in a statement. “It’s not. It’s a distraction from what we really need.”
Newsom said the decision was one of the hardest choices of his career because it will bring up painful memories for the families of crime victims.
“As governor, I bear sole responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I would bear sole responsibility for every execution,” Newsom wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which said the use of the death penalty reflected racial bias, applauded the announcement.
“These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to racist, error-prone and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,” Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death penalty law, alleging it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Victims groups and prosecutors denounce decision
Patricia Wenskunas, founder of the California-based nonprofit Crime Survivors, which has opposed abolishing the death penalty, criticized Newsom’s decision.
“My heart aches for each of the victims and each of their family members,” she said, calling the decision “offensive” and “scandalous.”
Steve Herr, whose son Sam Herr was murdered along with his friend Julie Kibuishi by Daniel Wozniak in 2010, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the governor’s decision. He said the death of his son’s killer would have meant the end of the matter.
“When someone commits such a heinous crime, they don’t deserve to live,” Herr said. “Hearing what Newsom just did…he’s just a coward.”
The California District Attorneys Association condemned the decision. Last month, the group sent a letter to Newsom expressing “serious concerns” about his decision and warning that such drastic action would inflict additional pain on the victims’ loved ones.
“With the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom ignored the decisions of hundreds of juries and judges, as well as the anguish of families who have lost loved ones to the worst crimes imaginable,” CDAA President Jeannine M. Pacioni said in a statement. “The victims never benefited from a commutation of their sentences. Their families never had a choice. They deserve much better than that.”
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow called the decision a “sickening abuse of power.”
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.
“San Luis Obispo County juries sentenced both men to death. The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld both judgments. Their families have waited decades for the State of California to keep its word. Today, the governor broke his word,” Dow said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also condemned the decision, calling it “a mercy to wolves while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on sheep.”
Other governors have taken similar steps
Newsom has said in the past that the government is wrong to kill its citizens and that, in practice, capital punishment discriminates against the mentally ill and people of color.
Other governors have granted broad pardons to all death row inmates in their states, including Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon in 2022 and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado in 2020. Both are Democrats.
In 2024, President Joe Biden also granted clemency to 37 of 40 federal prisoners on death row.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who will succeed Newsom in January, said he would extend the state’s moratorium on the death penalty.
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