Gavin Newsom Moves to Commute All 548 of California’s Death Sentences: “These Offenders Will Die in Prison but Not by Our Hand”
by Sari Moon · Thought CatalogBy Sari Moon
Updated 2 minutes ago, November 5, 2026
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on November 5 that he will commute all 548 of the state’s death sentences to life without parole, calling state-sanctioned killing incompatible with California’s values. His office says the action covers 529 men and 19 women.
“We can now let these offenders die in obscurity while we forever remember and honor their victims,” he wrote in an open letter.
More than half of those cases still need approval from the California Supreme Court. Legal experts say the directive takes immediate effect for about 30 percent of the cases, because the state constitution blocks clemency for anyone with two felony convictions unless four justices back it.
If the court signs off on the rest, it would be the largest mass commutation of death sentences in U.S. history, well past the 167 Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted in 2003.
Newsom halted executions in March 2019, two months into office, and ordered San Quentin’s lethal-injection equipment dismantled. At the time, 737 people were condemned. California last carried out an execution on January 17, 2006.
In the letter he called the decision “among the most difficult of my career,” warning it may “surface excruciating memories for victims’ families.” He wrote that voters kept the death penalty “on the books” and that his clemency “does not repeal” it or reach future sentences.
The families he mentioned are not sold. A blanket commutation amounts to “a slap in the face” to every special-circumstance murder victim, said San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow.
Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter Polly was murdered in 1993, said, “If Gavin Newsom wants to go this route, Fuck him.”
The move lands as Newsom’s time in office winds down. As attorney general, Governor-elect Xavier Becerra defended death sentences, and he now says he will keep the moratorium in place without pledging to abolish the penalty.
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