California Governor Gavin Newsom has commuted the death sentences of all 548 inmates on the state’s death row, replacing their sentences with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In a letter announcing the decision, Newsom said the state could now allow the perpetrators to fade into obscurity while ensuring that victims are remembered and honoured forever.
The move is considered significant in a state where no execution has been carried out since 2006. Citing his constitutional clemency powers, Newsom said state-sanctioned killing was incompatible with California’s values and undermined the foundations of its justice system.
He described California’s death penalty system as a failure, arguing that life imprisonment without the possibility of parole represents the harshest and most principled form of punishment.
Newsom, a Democrat leading the most populous US state, is widely viewed as a potential contender in the 2028 presidential election. Columbia University professor Bernard E. Harcourt compared his decision to the moral stance taken by former French President François Mitterrand in 1981.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), welcomed the move as an end to what he described as a racist and inhumane form of punishment.
However, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman pointed out that voters had twice supported retaining the death penalty in statewide ballot measures.
The death penalty remains legal in 27 US states, while 23 states and Washington, DC, have abolished it. US President Donald Trump has continued to defend capital punishment, describing it as an essential tool for combating heinous crimes.
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