California’s Newsom to grant clemency to state’s 548 death row inmates

South China Morning Post · Reuters · 2026-11-05 22:28 UTC

Sweeping action marks the largest mass commutation in US history, converting death sentences to life without parole.

⁠California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday he will commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates currently condemned to execution in his state, the largest death row in the western hemisphere, declaring he believes capital punishment to be morally wrong.

The announcement, in a three-page letter addressed to “all Californians”, came as Newsom, a Democrat who is expected to seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, neared the end of his second and final four-year term as governor.

Newsom, who previously served as mayor of San Francisco and lieutenant governor, declared a moratorium on executions in March 2019, about two months after first taking ‌office as governor. California last put a prisoner to death in 2006 when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor.

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