California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today, November 5, 2026, that he is commuting the death sentences of all 548 people (529 men and 19 women) on the state’s death row, making it the largest mass clemency in American history. The clemency grant would commute the death sentences to sentences of life without parole.
"After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish," Newsom said. "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."
He acknowledged that his clemency action will anger and hurt some Californians and said that it will "always weigh heavily on me". "As governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution.”
Newsom can commute about 40% of the death sentences with the stroke of a pen, but the rest will require the state Supreme Court’s approval to be finalized. The justices will have to decide whether to approve commutations for people convicted of multiple felonies, more than half of those in question.
This spring, the California Supreme Court ordered California Department of Justice to show cause why it should not declare the death penalty unconstitutional, a move widely read as signaling the justices’ ultimate intent to end it.
Jess Nichol, the sister of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1993 by a man who later received a death sentence, issued a statement after Newsom’s announcement describing her support for the decision.
“I used to think the man who killed my sister deserved execution,” Nichol said. “But over time I’ve realized that whether he’s executed has absolutely nothing to do with my recovery or with real public safety.”
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