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

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on November 5, 2026, that he is commuting the death sentences of all 548 people on the state's death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 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 person in the state.

The action covers 529 men and 19 women. California holds the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. The state has not carried out an execution since 2006. Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019, two months after taking office, 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.

Most of the commutations require review by the California Supreme Court. The state constitution requires court approval for clemency granted to anyone convicted of more than one felony. Newsom's office said roughly 382 cases fall into that category and asked the court to complete its review before his term ends in January 2027. The remaining sentences take effect immediately. If the court approves the full set, the national death-row population will drop by nearly one-third, leaving about 1,388 people under sentence of death across the United States, the lowest figure since 1984.

Newsom has opposed capital punishment for nearly three decades as an elected official. He timed the announcement for the final months of his second term. He is widely expected to consider a presidential run in 2028. Victims' rights groups and some prosecutors said they would challenge the commutations in court. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office would continue to evaluate every death-eligible case with the care the decisions demand. Anne Marie Schubert of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation pledged to contest the grants before the Supreme Court.

Among those whose sentences will change if approved are serial killers Randy Kraft and Charles Ng, convicted of 11 murders in the 1980s, and Richard Allen Davis, who abducted and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. Newsom wrote that the state's system for administering the death penalty has failed by every measure and cannot be applied fairly. He noted that 220 people on death row had waited 15 years or more for appointed habeas counsel, and 139 had waited 20 years or more.

California voters have twice rejected ballot measures that would have abolished the death penalty, most recently in 2016. Newsom's moratorium and the current commutations rest on executive and judicial processes rather than a change in statute. Future governors could seek to restore executions only for people who still hold death sentences after the court completes its review. The commutations remove that possibility for the current population once they are final.

The decision arrives days after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. It also follows a failed execution attempt in Tennessee that drew international attention. Newsom said he made the choice because the state cannot morally kill people within an imperfect legal system while remaining true to its stated values of justice and human decency. The practical effect is that California will no longer maintain a death row once the court finishes its work.