California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday commuted the death sentences of all 548 prisoners awaiting execution in the state, though most of them will stay on death row until the California Supreme Court weighs in.
If the court signs off, the order would be the largest mass commutation of death sentences in U.S. history. In an open letter, Newsom condemned capital punishment as state-sanctioned killing and said it clashes with California's values.
The state Constitution lets the governor act alone in only about 40% of the cases. The rest involve inmates who had a felony on their record before being condemned or who committed new crimes while awaiting execution, and those commutations need the high court's approval as a check against abuse of power.
That review has teeth. The court turned down 10 commutations Gov. Jerry Brown granted in his last full month in office, all involving people convicted of multiple felonies, and gave no reason.
A crime victims' advocacy group also plans to challenge the order. Among the inmates whose cases require court approval is Richard Allen Davis, who murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. Her sister, Jess Nichol, backs the governor, saying she once believed Davis should be executed but changed her mind.
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper urged Newsom to reverse course. He recalled Luis Bracamontes, condemned for the 2014 murders of two lawmen, a Sacramento County deputy named Danny Oliver and a Placer County detective named Michael Davis Jr., laughing in court as the victims' families watched, and said the killer had now escaped his punishment.
Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said the decision showed deep disregard for victims, their families and prosecutors, while others accused Newsom of chasing an edge in the 2028 presidential race. San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow had warned the governor in October that blanket clemency would insult murder victims and their families.
Capital punishment remains legal in California, and prosecutors may still seek it. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office will keep weighing every eligible case until the law changes. State voters rejected abolishing the death penalty in 2012 and again in 2016.
In practice, little changes immediately. California has not carried out an execution since 2006, Newsom imposed a moratorium in 2019 and had the death chamber at San Quentin taken apart. His office said 45 people would otherwise face execution now, and Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra has pledged to keep the pause in place.
Newsom said Friday that many people around him had advised him to do nothing, and he acknowledged the move could leave him exposed if he runs for president. An August Pew Research Center poll found about two-thirds of voters nationally support the death penalty for murder.
If my job is just to read the polls, you can have an AI chatbot as governor
Gavin Newsom, California governor
Gar Culbert, who chairs the political science department at Cal State Los Angeles, said courting the Democratic base would help Newsom in a presidential bid and doubted the issue would carry much weight in a general election.
