In one of his final acts as California governor, Gavin Newsom has moved to spare every prisoner on the state’s death row.
Newsom announced Thursday that he would commute the sentences of all 548 people currently facing execution in California.
Under the plan, each death sentence would be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole, he said in an open letter to California residents.
The Democrat said the decision follows nearly three decades of publicly opposing capital punishment, which he considers morally unacceptable.
Newsom acknowledged that the prisoners had caused “indescribable suffering” to victims and their families. However, he said he had concluded that the state could not morally take their lives.
“State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us,” he wrote.
“I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.”
Despite Newsom’s announcement, questions remain over whether California law allows him to commute every sentence without further approval.
Gavin Newsom has moved to spare every prisoner on California’s death row in one of his final acts as governor
Newsom announced plans to commute the sentences of all 548 prisoners on California’s death row, converting them to life without parole
The state constitution allows the governor to grant clemency and commute the sentences of inmates convicted of only one felony without outside approval.
However, clemency for anyone convicted of multiple felonies requires approval from the California Supreme Court.
As a result, the court would need to approve 382 of the commutations announced Thursday—about 70 percent of the total—according to figures released by Newsom’s office.
Newsom described the decision as one of the most difficult of his career, acknowledging that it could reopen deep wounds for victims’ relatives.
“As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” he wrote.
Newsom had considered the clemency plan for months, but discussions with his advisers intensified after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on September 30, Newsweek reported.
If the mass commutations proceed, some of California’s most notorious convicted killers could avoid execution.
They include serial killer Charles Ng, who was sentenced to death in 1999 after being convicted of raping, torturing and murdering between 11 and 25 people in Calaveras County from 1983 to 1985.
Richard Allen Davis, 72, remains on death row for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas
Former elementary school vice principal Vincent Brothers was sentenced to death in 2007 for killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law
Another serial killer on death row is Wayne Adam Ford.
Ford, a former long-haul truck driver and U.S. Marine, abducted, strangled, killed and dismembered four women—Tina Renee Gibbs, Patricia Ann Tamez, Lanett Deyon White and Kerry Ann Cummings—between 1997 and 1998.
Cary Stayner, known as the Yosemite Park Killer, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering four women near Yosemite National Park in 1999.
He could also benefit from Newsom’s order, even though the California Supreme Court rejected his death-penalty appeal earlier this year.
Vincent Brothers, a former elementary school vice principal, received a death sentence in 2007 for the July 2003 murders of his wife, three children and mother-in-law.
Brothers shot Joanie, 39, and their children, Marques, four, Lyndsey, two, and Marshall, before killing Joanie’s 70-year-old mother, Earnestine Harper, inside their Bakersfield home.
Investigators said he staged the scene to resemble a botched burglary and tried to create an alibi by flying to Ohio before the killings.
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He later rented a car, drove to California and returned to Ohio after the murders.
Charles Ng was sentenced to death in 1999 after being convicted of raping, torturing and murdering between 11 and 25 people in Calaveras County from 1983 to 1985
Cary Stayner, known as the Yosemite Park Killer, could be spared under Newsom’s order despite the California Supreme Court rejecting his death-penalty appeal earlier this year
Former long-haul trucker Wayne Adam Ford murdered four women between 1997 and 1998
Richard Allen Davis, 72, is on death row for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
Davis abducted the girl from her bedroom at knifepoint, strangled her and buried her body in a shallow grave.
Klaas’s murder helped spur California lawmakers to enact the so-called three-strikes law, which imposes longer sentences on repeat offenders.
Joseph Naso, known as the “Alphabet killer,” was sentenced to death in November 2013 for murdering four women whose bodies were abandoned in rural parts of Northern California.
Naso, a father of two who worked as a photographer and coached Little League, was convicted of killing Roxene Roggasch, 18, in 1977; Carmen Colon, 22, in 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, in 1993; and Tracy Tafoya, 31, in 1994.
He strangled the women and took photographs of their posed bodies, sometimes having sex with the corpses.
Investigators found a disturbing “list of 10” at Naso’s remote home in Reno, Nevada, and believed it identified his victims.
Naso allegedly told a fellow inmate at San Quentin State Prison last year that the list did not represent his only victims, but instead detailed his “top 10” killings.
“Alphabet killer” Joseph Naso, 92, was sentenced to death in November 2023 for murdering four women whose bodies were left in rural areas of Northern California
“Yacht killer” Skylar Deleon, 47, was sentenced to death in 2009 for killing Thomas and Jackie Hawks. Deleon, born John Jacobson Jr., underwent gender-affirming surgery funded by taxpayers while on death row. She is pictured before the surgery, left, and afterward, right
Skylar Deleon, known as the “yacht killer,” could also be affected by Newsom’s clemency plan after undergoing gender-affirming surgery funded by taxpayers while on death row.
Deleon, a former child actor, began transitioning in prison after receiving a death sentence in 2009 for the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks.
Born John Jacobson Jr., Deleon overpowered the couple aboard their 55-foot yacht in 2004, tied them to the vessel’s anchor and threw them overboard.
Prosecutors said the motive was financial, alleging that Deleon forced the couple to sign over their assets before killing them to fund a gender transition.
The state began covering the cost of Deleon’s surgery in April 2023.
Newsom’s clemency announcement comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years. He imposed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019, although hundreds of prisoners remained on death row.
California voters rejected a 2016 ballot measure that would have abolished the death penalty statewide.
Executions in California are carried out at San Quentin State Prison
Newsom has previously said the government should not kill its citizens, arguing that capital punishment has been applied in a way that discriminates against people with mental illness and people of color.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has argued that the death penalty reflects racial bias, welcomed 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,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
The ACLU is also involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death-penalty statute, arguing that it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
