Credit : Reuters' X
SACRAMENTO, November 5, 2026 — California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates currently condemned to execution in the state, converting them to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Reuters reported the announcement as breaking news, noting that California holds the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. Newsom, a Democrat in his final months in office, framed the decision in a letter “to all Californians,” saying state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with the state’s values and undermines the legal system.
“After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” Newsom wrote, according to the governor’s office and reports by the Associated Press, BBC, Los Angeles Times and CalMatters. He said life without parole is the most severe punishment he can lawfully impose and that the state can ethically enforce.
Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019. California has not carried out an execution since 2006, and only 13 people have been executed since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978. Since 2024, condemned men have been housed across multiple prisons rather than a single San Quentin death-row unit, while condemned women were moved into the general population at the Central California Women’s Facility.
About 40% of the commutations can be completed by the governor alone. Roughly 382 cases involving multiple felony convictions require approval from four of seven justices on the California Supreme Court, according to CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times. Newsom said inmates whose sentences are reduced will not be eligible for newer parole-board commutation and resentencing pathways that victims’ groups feared could lead to release.
Prosecutors and victims’ advocates condemned the move, arguing it overrides juries and voters who have repeatedly upheld capital punishment. Supporters said the system has been costly, slow and prone to error. Experts quoted by the BBC said clearing death row could save millions of dollars a year in specialised litigation even though the practical risk of execution was already low.
The decision comes as Newsom prepares to leave office after eight years and as Democrats discuss him as a possible 2028 presidential contender. Fellow Democrat Xavier Becerra is projected to succeed him after this week’s midterm elections.
Source: Reuters on X, with background from the California governor’s office, Associated Press, BBC, Los Angeles Times and CalMatters.
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