Gavin Newsom commutes all 548 California death sentences
San Francisco Chronicle · Hannah Wiley, Sophia Bollag, Bob Egelko ·
The move comes as Newsom openly explores a run for president, and amid a renewed national reckoning with the death penalty.
In one of the most sweeping acts in his eight years in office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 of the state’s condemned inmates to life without parole.
In an open letter to Californians announcing the decision, Newsom said he agonized over it for years.
“I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom wrote. “This decision is among the most difficult of my career, not because I doubt its necessity for our state but because I know its announcement may surface excruciating memories for victims’ families.”
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