California Governor Gavin Newsom commutes all 548 death sentences to life without parole

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that he is commuting every death sentence in the state to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. “My decision today comes after nearly three decades of openly opposing state-sanctioned executions as an elected official,” Newsom wrote in an open letter to California residents shared by his office.

The decision will affect 548 people currently on California's death row, which Newsom's office described as the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. Newsom is also considering a potential 2028 presidential bid. The announcement comes amid renewed scrutiny of the death penalty following Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike in late September.

In the weeks after Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital, Tennessee suspended its remaining executions. However, courts have rejected requests to halt executions in other states. Three lethal injections were scheduled for Thursday, with Florida and Alabama planning to execute two men hours after an execution in Indiana.

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) welcomed Newsom's decision in a statement Thursday, describing it as a historic step towards ending the death penalty in California and across the country. “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 Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “By taking this step, Gov. Newsom has affirmed that the death penalty has no place in California and he showed real courage by confronting racialized injustice head-on.”

Among those on California's death row are serial killer Randy Kraft, known as the “Southern California Strangler”; Charles Ng, convicted of killing 11 people in California during the 1980s; and Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klass in 1993.