California Governor Gavin Newsom Commutes All 548 Death Row Sentences to Life Without Parole

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on November 5, 2026, that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 people currently on the state’s death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. California holds the largest death row population in the United States, representing roughly a quarter of all such sentences nationwide.

Newsom made the announcement in an open letter to Californians. He wrote that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of the legal system, and diminishes each of us. He stated that after nearly 30 years in public office he has come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish. The commutations apply the same sentence to every condemned person: life without parole, which he described as the most severe punishment he can lawfully impose and the state can ethically enforce.

The state last carried out an execution in 2006. Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions shortly after taking office in 2019 and later ordered the dismantling of the execution chamber at San Quentin. Only 13 people have been executed in California since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978. The state has spent an estimated $6 billion on the system over that period.

Of the 548 cases, roughly one-third can take effect immediately. The remaining cases, involving people with multiple felony convictions, require a recommendation from the California Supreme Court with four justices concurring, under Article V, Section 8 of the state constitution. The Death Penalty Information Center described the action as the largest mass clemency in American history. If fully implemented, it would reduce the national death row population by nearly 30 percent, leaving approximately 1,388 people under sentence of death across the country, the lowest number since 1984.

Los Angeles County alone has sentenced 319 people to death, of whom about 174 remained on death row at the time of the announcement. Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties account for half of California’s death row. Newsom’s letter acknowledged that many Californians believe those who commit brutal crimes deserve to die. He said he respects those views, including those of some victims’ families, while holding that the state cannot morally carry out executions.

The decision does not repeal California’s death penalty statute. Prosecutors may still seek death sentences in future cases. Victims’ rights advocates and some former prosecutors have said they will challenge the commutations in court. Anne Marie Schubert, chief executive of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, pledged to contest the proposals before the state Supreme Court.

Newsom is in the final months of his second term and is widely expected to consider a presidential run in 2028. The announcement came on the same day Democrats secured majorities in both chambers of Congress. The governor’s office said the commutations cover 529 men and 19 women.

California has not executed anyone for two decades amid legal challenges to its lethal injection protocol and the subsequent moratorium. Male prisoners on death row had already been moved from individual cells at San Quentin into other facilities; the 20 women were transferred to general population at the Central California Women’s Facility.