Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he’ll change all death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years. In 2019, he placed a moratorium on executions in the state but hundreds of people remained on death row.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a letter addressed “to all Californians.”
Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people currently sentenced to death in California; 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.
The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court’s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, which means the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or roughly 70%, according to numbers provided by Newsom’s office.
Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it will surface painful memories for crime victims’ families.
“As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” Newsom wrote.
California voters rejected a ballot measure in 2016 that would have repealed the death penalty in the state.
The American Civil Liberties Union, who has said the implementation of the death penalty reflects racial bias, applauded the announcement.
“These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,” said executive director Anthony Romero in a statement.
The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death penalty statute, alleging it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Locally, Norma Chávez-Peterson, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego &
Imperial Counties, said, “By granting universal clemency to all people with death sentences in California, Governor Newsom has joined a chorus of leaders nationwide who have rejected the death penalty and recognized it as a failed and unjust experiment. This isn’t about individual cases, it is about addressing a system that is racist, fundamentally flawed, ineffective, and unfixable.”
Newsom has said in the past that it is wrong for the government to kill its citizens and that capital punishment in practice has discriminated against mentally ill people and people of color.
City News Service contributed to this report.
