Gavin Newsom commutes more than 500 death sentences in California | Gavin Newsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday commuted the death sentences of more than 500 people on the state’s death row, a move that ensures they can never be carried out under future administrations.

The Democrat’s mass commutation at the end of his term converted all of the state’s death sentences to life without parole, representing the largest release from U.S. death row in modern history.

The move comes after the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee sparked global outrage and renewed calls for a national pause on capital punishment.

His decision affects 529 men and 19 women on death row in the state, the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere, the governor said in a letter announcing his decision.

“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,” he wrote. “I know we cannot execute people in our flawed legal system and remain true to our core values, first and foremost justice and human decency. »

Newsom, seen as a likely candidate for president in 2028, has long opposed the death penalty and issued a moratorium on executions in 2019. He also dismantled the state’s death row chamber at the infamous San Quentin prison, moving those on death row to other facilities where they had more freedom of movement and access to programs — for some, a sea change after decades isolation in isolation cells.

The last execution in California took place in 2006, but hundreds of people in the state’s prisons continue to live under death sentences, making California home to the largest population of death row inmates in the country.

Newsom’s office noted Thursday that of the 548 people sentenced to death, 220 of them waited 15 years or more to be appointed habeas attorneys, the legal representation they are entitled to to defend their cases. And 139 people have been waiting 20 years or more to be represented. If there were no moratorium, 45 people in the state would be considered to have exhausted their appeals and would be immediately executed.

“This decision is among the most difficult of my career, not because I doubt its necessity for our state but because I know its announcement could bring back terrible memories for the victims’ families,” Newsom said. “I hold this painful truth and the conviction that this is the right action. »

Governors from both parties have taken bold steps to oppose capital punishment over the years, including an Illinois Republican who commuted all 167 death sentences in 2003 before leaving office. In 2024, Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper commuted 15 death sentences in the state on his last day in office.

Support for the death penalty is waning in the United States, but Democrats have sometimes been reluctant to carry out mass commutations for fear that Republicans will paint them as “soft on crime” politicians who have sided with people convicted of brutal murders.

Newsom has supported criminal justice reform efforts, including changes to prioritize rehabilitation programs in prisons. But some supporters have accused him over the years of bowing to political pressure on the issue, including when he vetoed the release of high-profile prisoners even after they were granted parole.

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