Breaking Politics

Newsom commutes all 548 California death sentences to life without parole in largest mass clemency in U.S. history

Sacramento, California • November 5, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: the California State Capitol in Sacramento at dusk, its illuminated dome glowing under a dramatic evening sky, with a bronze scales-of-justice statue in the foreground

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday, November 5, 2026, that he is commuting every death sentence in the state — all 548 people on California's death row — to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in what the Death Penalty Information Center called the largest mass commutation in U.S. history.

Newsom announced the move in an open letter to Californians, saying he was exercising his constitutional clemency authority. The 548 people affected — 529 men and 19 women — make up more than a quarter of everyone on death row in the United States, and California holds the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere, according to the governor's office and the Death Penalty Information Center.

The commutations will not all take effect at once. Under the California Constitution, a governor may not grant clemency to a person convicted of more than one felony without a recommendation from the state Supreme Court, with four of the seven justices concurring. That applies to 382 of the 548 cases, according to the governor's office, and Newsom submitted those cases to the court on Thursday, asking it to issue its recommendation by the end of the year so he can act before his term ends in January. The other 166 commutations require no further action.

In his letter, Newsom argued that the death penalty is unjust, error-prone and incompatible with the state's values. He imposed a moratorium on executions shortly after taking office in 2019, and California has not carried out an execution since 2006.

The move does not repeal California's death penalty, which voters kept in 2012 and 2016, and prosecutors may still seek death sentences in new cases. Newsom said those decisions will remain with prosecutors, juries and courts.

California's death row includes some of the most notorious murderers in the state's history, among them serial killers Randy Kraft and Charles Ng, and Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. District attorneys and death penalty supporters reacted critically to the announcement, while the Equal Justice Initiative called it a momentous action that commutes about a quarter of all death sentences nationwide.

Newsom's announcement came on the same day executions were carried out or scheduled elsewhere in the country: Indiana executed Jeffrey Weisheit by lethal injection early Thursday morning, and executions were scheduled in Alabama and Florida. If the California commutations stand, Florida — with 235 people on death row as of November 5 — would become the state with the largest death row in the country.

Sources: CNN, "Newsom commutes sentences of all California death row prisoners" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified); USA Today, "Newsom commutes California death sentences for 548 people" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified); LawDork, "Newsom moves to clear out California's 548-person death row in largest such clemency act" (Nov. 5, 2026, full text verified); Equal Justice Initiative, "Gov. Newsom Commutes All California Death Sentences" (Nov. 5, 2026). Event date verified: announcement made Thursday, November 5, 2026. No prior Newsom commutation note exists on the site.