California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced he will commute the death sentences of all 548 prisoners on the state’s death row to life without the possibility of parole, according to an open letter to Californians.
\n\nThe outgoing governor can finalize roughly 40% of the commutations on his own, but the rest require approval from the California Supreme Court before his term ends in January, according to the Los Angeles Times. Newsom asked the justices to weigh in on 382 of the cases.
\n\nNewsom, a Democrat eyeing a 2028 presidential bid, framed the move as a matter of conscience. “I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,” the term-limited governor wrote. He argued the death penalty erodes the legal system and diminishes the state.
\n\nThe reprieve covers 529 men and 19 women. It includes some of the most infamous names in California’s criminal history. Charles Ng, convicted of 11 murders in the mid-1980s, is among them. So is Richard Allen Davis, who abducted and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993.
\n\nPolly’s father, Marc Klaas, condemned the decision. “Baby killers, cop killers, spree killers, and serial killers have all found an ally in Gavin Newsom,” Klaas told Fox…
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