Updated ,first published
Sacramento: California Governor Gavin Newsom says he will change all 548 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.
Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, who’s long been opposed to the death penalty, placed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019.
His latest move came after he realised “the limits of what government can justly accomplish”, he said.
“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 an open letter on Thursday (US time).
Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people who are currently sentenced to death in California, of which 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.
California has more death row inmates than any other state, and Newsom’s action would cancel about a quarter of all US death sentences, The New York Times reported.
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 about 70 per cent, according to numbers provided by Newsom’s office.
Californians voted via ballot measures to uphold the death penalty in 2012 and 2016. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row in the western hemisphere.
Among the most notorious convicted killers on California’s death row are Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Randy Kraft, the so-called “Scorecard Killer” who kept a list of his 16 victims in the 1970s and ’80s.
Other prominent killers, including Scott Peterson and the Manson family members, received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.
Jess Nichol, Klaas’ sister, said she previously believed Davis deserved the death penalty, but her views evolved.
“The system tells survivors that execution matters to our healing,” Nichol said in a statement. “It doesn’t. It’s a distraction from what we actually need.”
Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it would 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.
Patricia Wenskunas, founder of the California advocacy nonprofit Crime Survivors, which opposed the abolition of the death penalty, criticised Newsom’s decision.
“My heart hurts for every one of the victims and every one of their family members,” she said, calling the decision “offensive” and “outrageous”.
The California District Attorneys Association did not immediately comment on the announcement. But last month the group sent a letter to Newsom expressing “grave concerns” about him considering the move and warning that such a sweeping action would inflict additional anguish on victims’ families.
“Every death sentence in California represents an individual case in which a jury heard the evidence, considered the circumstances and determined that the most serious punishment under our law was warranted,” association president Jeannine M. Pacioni said.
“To simply erase all those judgments with the stroke of a pen, without considering the facts of each case or the families affected, would be a profound disservice to the administration of justice.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which 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.
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 colour.
Other governors have granted broad clemency to all death row prisoners in their states, including Oregon’s Kate Brown in 2022 and Jared Polis of Colorado in 2020.
In 2024, then-president Joe Biden also granted clemency to 37 out of 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who will take over from Newsom in January, has said he will extend the state’s moratorium on the death penalty.
AP
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