California Governor Gavin Newsom has commuted all 548 death sentences in the state to life without the possibility of parole, The Post Millennial reports.
In a November 5 open letter to Californians, Newsom said he is exercising his constitutional clemency authority after nearly three decades of opposing state-sanctioned executions. He wrote that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values and undermines the foundations of the legal system.
The commutations are not prison releases. Every inmate covered by the order remains condemned to die behind bars, only not by execution.
Newsom first imposed a moratorium on executions in March 2019, formalizing a de facto halt that had stood since California's last execution in 2006. That pause stopped lethal injections while leaving hundreds of death judgments intact until Thursday's categorical clemency.
California holds the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere, and vacating these sentences removes nearly one-fourth of all United States death sentences from the execution track. Newsom stressed that the condemned caused indescribable suffering that persists across generations for victims and their families.
He acknowledged that many Californians believe people who commit brutal crimes deserve to die. As governor, he said, he has concluded the state cannot morally kill them.
The letter makes clear the death penalty itself remains on the books. California voters have kept capital punishment, Newsom wrote, and prosecutors, juries, and courts retain the power to seek, impose, and uphold death sentences in future cases.
What changed is the status of the current condemned population. Newsom said he will issue the same commutation life without the possibility of parole to every person now under a death sentence rather than sorting offenders into separate categories.
Clemency for people twice-convicted of a felony still requires California Supreme Court review under the state constitution. Newsom acknowledged that his decision pulls the justices into a weighty inter-branch process they did not choose.
Death-penalty opponents are already preparing ads praising the commutations as Newsom's term winds down amid speculation about a presidential run. Critics argue the mercy is being shown to offenders convicted of the most horrific crimes, not to the families of their victims.
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