California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement of a clemency plan affecting hundreds of death row inmates has drawn strong criticism from current and former prosecutors across the state, who expressed disbelief over the proposed blanket commutations.
Among those expected to have his death sentence changed to life in prison without parole is Isauro Aguirre of Palmdale. Aguirre was convicted in 2017 of torturing and killing Gabriel Fernandez, his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, who died in 2013.
“It’s horrible,” Jonathan Hatami, the Los Angeles deputy district attorney who prosecuted Aguirre, told News Media.
Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old from Los Angeles, died in 2013 after enduring months of horrific abuse at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend. The man convicted in his death is expected to have his sentence changed to life without parole under California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s clemency plan. (Gabriel’s Justice/Facebook)
Hatami said Newsom’s decision was made without consulting Gabriel’s family. He also reposted on X an emotional portion of the closing argument he delivered before Aguirre was sentenced.
“Death was likely a merciful end to Gabriel’s pain — and that only illuminates the torture and abuse that he really suffered,” Hatami said at the time. “When he needed it most, no one was there to hold Gabriel, to love him, to caress him, and to just tell him ‘everything will be alright.’”
Aguirre abused Gabriel for more than seven months before beating him so severely that the child died with a fractured skull and broken ribs. Prosecutors said the abuse included shooting him with a BB gun, burning his genitals and forcing him to eat cat feces. They also alleged that Aguirre targeted the second grader because he was gay. Gabriel’s mother was sentenced to prison as well.
Isauro Aguirre appears in Lancaster Superior Court on May 28, 2013. He was later convicted and sentenced to death for torturing and killing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“The defendant is not a victim,” Hatami said during his closing argument. He described Aguirre as “pure evil” and a “coward.”
Newsom’s plan would benefit some of California’s most notorious death row inmates, including people convicted of torturing victims, killing children, murdering police officers and committing serial killings.
Randy Kraft, known as the “Scorecard Killer,” was convicted of killing 16 men between 1972 and 1983. David Carpenter, the “Trailside Killer,” killed seven people on hiking trails between 1980 and 1981. Cary Stayner, known as the “Yosemite Killer,” murdered a mother, her daughter, the girl’s friend and another woman in 1999. Charles Ng received a death sentence for his role in the abduction, torture, rape and murder of 11 people between 1984 and 1985, including two infants.
“I am not aware of any victims’ family members receiving notice of these commutations from the Governor,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement calling Newsom’s action “the wrong decision.”
Handout images from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show Randy Steven Kraft in 1983, left, and June 2007, right. Kraft, considered one of California’s most prolific serial killers, may have killed as many as 65 young men in Oregon, Michigan and California over 13 years ending in 1983. He was sentenced to death after a trial that lasted nearly a year. His killing spree ended when he was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving in 1981 and authorities found a dead Marine in his Toyota. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)
In an open letter to California residents, Newsom said the state “cannot morally kill” the condemned inmates.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” he wrote. He also acknowledged that the inmates affected by the decision had “caused indescribable suffering to victims, their families, communities, and our state as a whole.”
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman and prosecutors in Orange, Sacramento and other counties said they would continue seeking the death penalty in future eligible cases. They noted that Newsom’s action does not amend state law or eliminate capital punishment.
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Public defender Frank Cox, left, sits at the defense table with David Carpenter in San Rafael, California, in December 1984. (MediaNews Group/Marin Independent Journal via Getty Images)
“Every death sentence results from years of legal proceedings, involving juries, judges, and multiple layers of mandatory appellate review,” Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho said. “A blanket commutation of all death sentences disregards the individualized facts and circumstances of each case, the careful judicial process that led to those lawful sentences, and the voices of victims who have waited decades for justice.”
California has not executed a condemned inmate in 20 years, but death row prisoners have generally not been included in progressive criminal justice changes that reduced sentences for other offenders.
Convicted murderer Charles Ng enters Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana after a jury recommended the death penalty for killing 11 people in Northern California in 1984. (Al Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation of the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in California is mercy for the wolves…while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.
With execution no longer possible, critics such as Spitzer argue that the affected inmates could eventually receive additional leniency.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Economic Summit in Long Beach on Oct. 14, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
Newsom’s office responded on X that the prisoners covered by the commutations are not eligible under the state’s new parole board guidelines, which critics say could eventually create a route to release.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, headed by former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the new regulations.
“We’re talking about people that would have been qualified for the death penalty, OK? So they are the worst of the worst,” Schubert told News Media in August.
“We are talking about cop killers. We’re talking about baby killers. We had a family at our press conference of a 6-week-old that was tortured to death by her father over a weeklong period of time, all of which, what I understand, was on video — and so you talk about baby killers. We talk about mass shooters, there’s a case out of Fresno that happened in the early ’90s where a guy killed 10 people and he pled to life without parole. He would potentially be eligible.”
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The California Supreme Court is expected to review hundreds of cases before the clemency actions become official.