California Governor Newsom Commutes 548 Death Sentences, Converting Them All to Life in Prison

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday commuted the death sentences of all 548 prisoners on the state's death row. Every sentence has now been converted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The mass commutation, made towards the end of his term, means none of these prisoners can be executed under any future governor. It has been described as the largest clearing of a US death row in modern history.

The decision follows the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, which sparked global outrage and renewed calls for a nationwide pause on capital punishment.

Newsom, considered a probable candidate for president in 2028, has long opposed the death penalty and issued a moratorium on executions in 2019.

He also dismantled the physical death row chamber at San Quentin prison and transferred people with death sentences to other facilities, where they had more freedom of movement and access to programmes — for some, a dramatic change after decades in solitary cells.

The last execution in California was in 2006, but hundreds of people remained under death sentences in the state's prisons, making California home to the largest death row population in the nation.

Governors of both parties have taken bold steps against capital punishment before. An Illinois Republican governor commuted all 167 death sentences in that state in 2003 before leaving office, and in 2024 North Carolina's Democratic governor Roy Cooper commuted 15 death sentences on his final day in office.

Support for the death penalty has been declining across the US, but Democrats have at times been reluctant to carry out mass commutations for fear Republicans would paint them as politicians who are soft on crime and who sided with people convicted of brutal murders.

Newsom has supported criminal justice reforms, including changes to prioritise rehabilitative programmes in prisons, but some advocates have accused him over the years of caving to political pressure, including when he vetoed the release of high-profile prisoners even after they had been granted parole.

California is one of 27 US states that still have the death penalty on the books.