As he prepares to leave office in two months, and to likely run for president, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he was commuting the sentences of all 548 people on California's death row.
Seven years after Newsom placed a moratorium on executions in the state of California, he announced he was granting clemency to all those facing death sentences, in a bold stance against the death penalty.
"I take this action because 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 said in a letter announcing his decision.
He added, "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. As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution."
California has not executed anyone on death row since 2006, so Newsom's 2019 moratorium was largely a symbolic gesture. On his way out the door as governor, perhaps Newsom sees a political advantage in the move following the weeks of national headlines over Tennessee's botched execution of Christa Pike, who remains alive and seriously injured from the attempted lethal injection.
Nationally, a slim majority of the country continues to support the death penalty in murder cases, though support for it has been declining steadily since peaking in the late 1980s, according to Gallup polls. These days, 52% of Americans say they're in favor of the death penalty, while 44% say they are not, with 4% having no opinion.
As NBC Bay Area reports, there are 529 men and 19 women currently on death row in California. State law requires approval of clemency grants by the California Supreme Court in the cases of individuals convicted of more than one felony, which means that 70% or 382 of Newsom's commutations will still need court approval.
Michael Romano, director of the Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law School, said in a statement to the Chronicle that Newsom's act is "the loudest and most important declaration that has been made in modern American history, that executions are intolerable under any circumstances, and that the death penalty is on its way out in America."
There is bound to be plenty of pushback and outrage over Newsom's decision as well. Anne Marie Schubert, director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and a former DA in Sacramento County, told the Chronicle that her organization plans to challenge Newsom's commutations in court.
Schubert noted that in many death row cases, "These are very, very unimaginable crimes," including "baby killers, murderers of peace officers, school shooters, serial killers, and murderers who raped and tortured their victims before taking their lives."
California voters reaffirmed their support of the death penalty by rejecting a ballot measure in 2016 that sought to ban it, and Newsom had pledged, when he was elected, to accept the will of the people on the matter, as the Chronicle notes. Ultimately, he says, his conscience and Catholic faith won out.
Now, we count down the days to when Newsom will announce his candidacy for president in 2028.
Related: Gavin Claims He Will Bow Out of Presidential Race If Kamala Runs
