{"id":14014,"date":"2026-11-06T02:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=14014"},"modified":"2026-11-06T02:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:01:59","slug":"california-governor-commutes-sentences-of-more-than-500-people-on-death-row-death-penalty-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=14014","title":{"rendered":"California governor commutes sentences of more than 500 people on death row | Death Penalty News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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California Governor Gavin Newsom<\/a> has announced that he will commute the sentences of all 548 people on death row in the state, the largest mass clemency in United States history.<\/p>\n

The announcement on Thursday effectively clears out California\u2019s death row<\/a>, although the state has not executed a prisoner for 20 years. Those on death row will instead serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

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\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 an open letter.<\/p>\n

Support for the death penalty<\/a> in the US has largely declined since the 1990s, although it still holds majority backing.<\/p>\n

A Pew Research Center poll released in August found that 66 percent of Americans supported the punishment for those convicted of murder. Roughly 73 percent, however, acknowledged there was a risk of executing an innocent person.<\/p>\n

Because death penalty cases often involve long and arduous legal appeals, many of those on death row are never executed.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three states have banned the practice outright, and others have effectively abandoned it even if the punishment remains on the books.<\/p>\n

Still, President Donald Trump, a Republican, has championed the death penalty for serious federal crimes. In April, his administration pledged to expand<\/a> the use of federal executions, including by employing firing squads.<\/p>\n

While proponents of the death penalty have argued that the punishment has a deterrent effect, critics say decades of scholarship indicate otherwise.<\/p>\n

They have also pointed to ethical and logistical issues, including the expense.<\/p>\n

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), California has spent $6bn on the death penalty since 1978 while carrying out just 13 executions in that time.<\/p>\n

Capital punishment has also been criticised for being applied disproportionately to racial minorities<\/a> and for the frequency of botched executions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The DPIC says that, since 1973, at least 203 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the US have later been exonerated.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s decision has been praised by criminal justice groups as a step away from a practice they say is outdated, inefficient and immoral.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Newsom\u2019s announcement marks a decisive moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States. Though other governors have granted universal clemencies, none have been at this scale,\u201d Robin Maher, the executive director of the DPIC, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bookending his time as governor first with a moratorium and now this mass clemency, Governor Newsom has irrevocably changed California\u2019s relationship with the death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DPIC noted that about two-thirds of the commutations must be reviewed by the California Supreme Court, which is required under state law to review clemency for anyone with multiple felony convictions, before they become final.<\/p>\n

Despite its left-leaning reputation, California previously served as a laboratory for punitive criminal justice policies in the late 20th century, during the heyday of the US\u2019s tough-on-crime politics.<\/p>\n

The states of Washington and California, for instance, were among the first to pass \u201cthree strikes\u201d laws in the early 1990s, punishing repeat offenders with high minimum sentences.<\/p>\n

The state continues to have the largest death row in the country.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s decision will reduce the number of people on death row nationally by nearly 30 percent.<\/p>\n

The announcement also comes days after a blockbuster night for the Democratic Party in the US midterm elections<\/a>, with major wins in formerly right-wing strongholds such as Texas and Kansas.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u201cblue wave\u201d during the midterms has set off speculation over potential Democratic candidates for the presidency in 2028.<\/p>\n

As governor for nearly eight years, Newsom has reached California\u2019s term limits: His second and final term will end in January 2027.<\/p>\n

He will be replaced by former US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra on January 4.<\/p>\n

But Newsom has long been seen as a likely presidential contender<\/a>, and he has increasingly dedicated time to serving as a proxy to support Democratic candidates in key races nationwide.<\/p>\n

He has, however, taken positions on criminal justice issues that have put him at odds with criminal justice groups and the state legislature.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Newsom vetoed a bill that would have placed limits in state prisons on the use of solitary confinement<\/a>, a practice defined as torture by the United Nations after certain lengths of time.<\/p>\n

In 2019, he also vetoed a measure that would have limited cooperation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prison authorities, and a similar bill failed in the state Senate<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that he will commute the sentences of all 548 people on death row in the state, the largest mass clemency in United States history. The announcement on Thursday effectively clears out California\u2019s death row, although the state has not executed a prisoner for 20 years. Those on death row…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t