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 was commuting the sentences of all 548 people awaiting 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 followed “nearly three decades of openly 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 cannot morally kill them.”
“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.”
Although Newsom has announced the mass clemency plan, it remains unclear whether California law allows him to reduce every prisoner’s sentence.
Gavin Newsom, pictured, has moved to spare every prisoner on California’s death row in one of his final acts as governor
Newsom has announced commutations for all 548 prisoners on California’s death row, reducing their sentences to life without parole
Under the state constitution, the governor can grant clemency and commute sentences unilaterally for inmates convicted of only one felony.
However, approval from the California Supreme Court is required for anyone convicted of more than one felony.
As a result, the court would need to approve 382 of the commutations announced Thursday—about 70 percent of the total—according to figures from Newsom’s office.
Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult of his career because it could reopen painful memories for the families of crime victims.
“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 been considering 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 killers could avoid execution.
They include serial killer Charles Ng, who was sentenced to death in 1999. He raped, tortured and murdered between 11 and 25 people in Calaveras County between 1983 and 1985.
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Richard Allen Davis, 72, pictured, is on death row for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas
Davis is pictured in Sonoma County Municipal Court in Santa Rosa, California, in 1993
Former elementary school vice principal Vincent Brothers, pictured, was sentenced to death in 2007 for murdering his wife, three children and mother-in-law
Vincent Brothers, a former elementary school vice principal, was sentenced to death in 2007 for killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law in July 2003.
Brothers shot his wife, Joanie, 39, and their children—Marques, four, Lyndsey, two, and Marshall, six weeks old—inside their Bakersfield home. He also killed Joanie’s 70-year-old mother, Earnestine Harper.
The crime scene was arranged to resemble a botched burglary, while Brothers tried to create an alibi by flying to Ohio before the murders.
He then rented a car, drove to California and returned to Ohio afterward.
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 to death and buried her in a shallow grave.
Klaas’s murder prompted California lawmakers to pass the so-called three-strikes law, which imposes longer sentences on repeat offenders.
The announcement comes as Newsom prepares to leave office after eight years. In 2019, he imposed a moratorium on executions in California, but hundreds of people remained on death row.
California voters rejected a 2016 ballot measure that would have abolished the death penalty in the state.
Charles Ng was sentenced to death in 1999 after raping, torturing and murdering between 11 and 25 people in Calaveras County between 1983 and 1985
Newsom has previously said he believes it is wrong for the government to kill its citizens. He has also argued that capital punishment has disproportionately affected 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,” executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death penalty statute, alleging that it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.