California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that he will commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in what the Death Penalty Information Center calls the largest mass clemency in American history.
Key Points
- The commutations affect all 548 people on California’s death row — 529 men and 19 women — more than a quarter of everyone sentenced to death in the United States.
- About two-thirds of the cases, 382 in total, must first be reviewed by the California Supreme Court because the prisoners have multiple felony convictions.
- The remaining 166 commutations can take effect immediately.
- The action does not abolish the death penalty in California, which voters chose to keep in 2012 and 2016.
In an open letter to Californians, Newsom said he was using his constitutional clemency authority because he believes state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with the state’s values. “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,” he wrote.
Newsom, a Democrat in the final weeks of his second and final term, imposed a moratorium on executions shortly after taking office in 2019. California has not carried out an execution since 2006, yet it still holds the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
The legal road ahead
The commutations are not all final yet. Under Article V, Section 8 of the California Constitution, the governor cannot grant clemency to a person convicted of more than one felony without a recommendation from the state Supreme Court. Four of the court’s seven justices must sign off in those cases, and Newsom has asked the court to return its recommendations by the end of 2026 so he can issue the commutation certificates before his term ends in January 2027.
Prisoners whose sentences are commuted will serve life without parole and keep their criminal convictions. No one will be pardoned or become eligible for release, and restitution orders will remain in place.
Anger from victims’ families
The decision drew furious criticism from victims’ advocates and prosecutors. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Newsom did not notify the state’s district attorneys or seek input from victims’ families, and victim advocates said they will challenge the decision in court. Eighty-seven of the condemned prisoners were convicted in Riverside County alone.
Supporters of the move argue that California’s death penalty is unjust and error-prone, and point out that the state has spent decades and billions of dollars on a system that has executed no one in 20 years. Critics reply that the voters have twice chosen to keep capital punishment, and that the governor is overruling 548 separate jury verdicts two days after the midterm elections.
What happens next
The California Supreme Court’s review of the 382 cases will decide how quickly the commutations become final. Prosecutors can still seek the death penalty in new cases, and the punishment remains on the statute books. But with the largest death row in the country effectively emptied by a single act of clemency, the debate over capital punishment in America has a new landmark — and a new court fight.
Sources: USA Today — https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/california/2026/11/05/newsom-commutes-548-california-death-sentences/92629187007/ ; Al Jazeera — https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/11/6/california-governor-commutes-sentences-of-more-than-500-people-on-death-row