Largest death row clearing in modern US history forecloses future executions

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday commuted the death sentences of more than 500 people on the state’s death row, converting all of the state’s death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the end of his term as governor.

The move ensures that none of the affected prisoners can ever be executed under future administrations and stands as the largest clearing of any US death row in modern history.

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

Newsom, a Democrat considered a probable candidate for president in 2028, has long opposed the death penalty. He issued a moratorium on executions in 2019 and dismantled the state’s physical death row chamber at San Quentin, transferring people with death sentences to other facilities where they had more freedom of movement and access to programs — for some, a dramatic change after decades isolated in solitary cells.

The last execution in California took place in 2006. Hundreds of people incarcerated in the state’s prisons nonetheless continued to live under death sentences, making California home to the largest death row population in the nation.

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

Support for the death penalty has been declining across the United States, but Democrats at times have been reluctant to carry out mass commutations, fearing that Republicans will paint them as “soft on crime” politicians who sided with people convicted of brutal murders.

Newsom has supported criminal justice reform efforts, including changes to prioritize rehabilitative programs in prisons. Some advocates over the years have accused him of caving to political pressures on the issue, including when he vetoed the release of high-profile prisoners even after they had been granted parole.

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