Key facts
- Newsom said the commutations cover all 548 inmates condemned to execution in California.
- Newsom said he acted under his constitutional clemency authority to impose life without the possibility of parole.
- The report said California has not executed a prisoner since 2006 and 13 inmates have been executed since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978.
- Newsom said California's system for administering the death penalty is a failure and cannot be fairly applied.
- The report said an Illinois Republican governor commuted 167 death sentences in 2003 and Roy Cooper of North Carolina commuted 15 in 2024.
- The report said California is one of 27 states that still have the death penalty on the books.
California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted the death sentences of all 548 people on the state's death row to life without the possibility of parole, he said in a letter to Californians on November 5, 2026. Newsom said he was exercising his constitutional clemency authority, describing the decision as a difficult but "righteous action."
"We can now let these offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honour the victims," Newsom said in the letter. He said that by every measure California's system for administering the death penalty "is a failure," that it has not and cannot be fairly applied, and that it has resulted in the conviction of innocent people. He acknowledged the action will anger and hurt some Californians and said it will "always weigh heavily on me."
The report said the decision is largely symbolic in a state that has not executed a prisoner since 2006, though experts say it could save millions of dollars in court costs each year. Only 13 inmates have been executed since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978, the report said. California has historically had the largest population of death row inmates, and Newsom previously ordered a halt to the death penalty in the state in 2019.
The report said Newsom, who is term limited, is winding down his final months in office, and fellow Democrat Xavier Becerra is projected to take over after the midterm elections on Tuesday. Newsom has been discussed as a possible 2028 contender for president, the report said.
The report said the decision comes after the high-profile botched execution of a woman in Tennessee last month and while executions have been on the rise in the US. President Donald Trump, a long-time supporter of the death penalty, has described capital punishment as "an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens," the report said. In 2020, during his first term, Trump ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty by ordering 13 executions over a six-month period, and on the first day of his second term in 2025 he signed an executive order that re-instated the death penalty, the report said. No federal executions have been carried out since he signed it.
The report said an Illinois Republican governor commuted 167 death sentences in 2003 before leaving office, and North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, commuted 15 death sentences on his final day in office in 2024. California is one of 27 states that still have the death penalty on the books, the report said.