California Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted the death sentences of all 548 inmates on the state's death row Thursday, converting every one of them to life without parole — the largest mass commutation of death row inmates in American history. One politician, facing no re-election, just unilaterally voided the sentences handed down by juries in nearly a quarter of all capital cases in the United States.
Newsom is term-limited and widely expected to mount a 2028 presidential run. He imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and has now made that moratorium permanent, insulating it from any future governor who might actually enforce the law California voters have repeatedly affirmed at the ballot box.
Among the 548: Marcus Wesson, who murdered nine of his own children in 2004 — three of them under age two — and is believed to have fathered several of the dead with his own daughters and nieces. Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her slumber party at knifepoint in 1993; her body was found months later. Isauro Aguirre, convicted in 2017 of torturing and killing his eight-year-old son, who suffered beatings, BB-gun shootings, starvation, and blunt-force trauma before dying. All three had their sentences wiped out by Newsom's pen.
Newsom acknowledged the pain in a letter released by his office. "Many Californians feel that those who commit brutal crimes deserve to die," he wrote. "But as Governor, I have concluded the state cannot morally kill them." He said he prays the action will "finally separate the memories of the victims of these crimes from the fate of those who harmed them" and that offenders will now "die in obscurity."
The Daily Caller highlighted the specific killers spared; The Guardian and BBC barely mentioned them. The Guardian instead led with praise from the ACLU, Martin Luther King III, and death penalty lawyer Bryan Stevenson, and noted that a former California prisons director who oversaw four executions supported the move. The Guardian also quoted Jess Nichol, Polly Klaas's sister, speaking in favor of the commutations — but did not detail what Davis did to Polly.
Newsom's office noted that 220 of the 548 had waited 15 or more years for habeas counsel and 139 had waited 20 or more years. BBC reported the move could save millions in court costs annually. Forty-five inmates have exhausted all appeals and would be subject to execution if the moratorium were lifted.
California hasn't executed anyone since 2006. The state supreme court must still review and approve the clemency grants for inmates convicted of multiple felonies.
The question now is whether one governor's conscience should be allowed to override the judgments of 548 juries — and whether a politician eyeing higher office just found his opening pitch to the Democratic base.
