California governor commutes sentences of more than 500 people on death row | Death penalty news

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he would commute the sentences of all 548 people on death row in the state, the largest mass pardon in US history.

Thursday’s announcement effectively frees California’s death row, even though the state has not executed a prisoner in 20 years. Those sentenced to death will instead serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.

“I am taking this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned murder is inconsistent with California values, undermines the foundation of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in an open letter.

In the United States, support for the death penalty has declined significantly since the 1990s, although it still enjoys majority support.

A Pew Research Center poll released in August found that 66 percent of Americans supported punishing those convicted of murder. However, around 73 percent of those surveyed agreed that there was a risk of executing an innocent person.

Because death penalty cases often involve lengthy and arduous legal appeals, many of those on death row are never executed.

Twenty-three states have outright banned this practice, and others have effectively abandoned it even though the penalty remains.

Yet President Donald Trump, a Republican, has defended the death penalty for serious federal crimes. In April, his administration pledged to increase the use of federal executions, including the use of firing squads.

While supporters of the death penalty say the punishment has a deterrent effect, critics say decades of research indicate otherwise.

They also highlighted ethical and logistical issues, including expenses.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), California has spent $6 billion on the death penalty since 1978, even though it has carried out only 13 executions during that time.

Capital punishment has also been criticized for its disproportionate application to racial minorities and for the frequency of botched executions.

DPIC says that since 1973, at least 203 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the United States have subsequently been exonerated.

Newsom’s decision was hailed by criminal justice groups as a step forward from a practice they say is outdated, ineffective and immoral.

“Governor Newsom’s announcement marks a watershed moment in the history of the death penalty in the United States. Although other governors have issued universal pardons, none have been of this magnitude,” Robin Maher, executive director of DPIC, said in a statement.

“By limiting his term as governor first through a moratorium and now through this massive clemency, Governor Newsom has irrevocably changed California’s relationship with the death penalty.

DPIC noted that approximately two-thirds of commutations must be reviewed by the California Supreme Court, which is required under state law to review clemency granted to anyone with multiple felony convictions, before they become final.

Despite its left-leaning reputation, California already served as a laboratory for punitive criminal justice policies in the late 20th century, during the height of anti-crime policy in the United States.

The states of Washington and California, for example, were among the first to adopt “three strikes” laws in the early 1990s, punishing repeat offenders with high minimum sentences.

The state continues to have the nation’s largest death row.

Newsom’s decision will reduce the number of people on death row nationwide by nearly 30 percent.

The announcement also comes days after a blockbuster night for the Democratic Party in the US midterm elections, with major victories in formerly right-wing strongholds like Texas and Kansas.

The so-called “blue wave” in the midterms has sparked speculation about potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates.

As governor for nearly eight years, Newsom has reached California’s term limit: his second and final term will end in January 2027.

He will be replaced on January 4 by former US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

But Newsom has long been seen as a likely presidential candidate, and he is increasingly spending time serving as a proxy to support Democratic candidates in key races nationwide.

He has, however, taken positions on criminal justice issues that have put him at odds with criminal justice groups and the state legislature.

In 2022, Newsom vetoed a bill that would have placed limits in state prisons on the use of solitary confinement, a practice defined as torture by the United Nations after a certain length of time.

In 2019, he also vetoed a measure that would have limited cooperation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prison authorities, and a similar bill failed in the state Senate in 2022.