Gavin Newsom commutes more than 500 death sentences in California

The Democrat's mass commutation at the end of his term has converted all of the state's death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. The move comes after the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee sparked global outrage and renewed calls for a nationwide pause on capital punishment.

Political context

Newsom, considered a probable candidate for president in 2028, has long opposed the death penalty and issued a moratorium on executions in 2019. He also dismantled the state's physical death row chamber in the infamous San Quentin prison, transferring people with death sentences to other facilities where they had more freedom of movement and access to programs.

Governors of both parties have taken bold measures to oppose capital punishment over the years, including an Illinois Republican who commuted all 167 death sentences in 2003 before leaving office.

National trend

The last execution in California was in 2006, but hundreds of people incarcerated in the state's prisons have continued to live under death sentences, making California home to the largest death row population in the nation. Support for the death penalty has been declining across the US, but Democrats at times have been reluctant to do mass commutations out of fear that Republicans will paint them as "soft on crime" politicians.

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