California governor commutes sentences of more than 500 people on death row

What the report says

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that he will commute the sentences of all 548 people on death row in the state, according to Al Jazeera. The move would clear California’s death row and replace those sentences with life in prison without parole. Newsom framed the decision as a reflection of California’s values and as a response to what he called deeper problems in the legal system.

Al Jazeera reported that the action is the largest mass clemency in U.S. history. It comes in a state that has not carried out an execution in 20 years, even though capital punishment remains on the books. The Department of Corrections process means that about two-thirds of the commutations must still be reviewed by the California Supreme Court before they are final, because state law requires that review for people with multiple felony convictions.

The governor’s decision has been welcomed by criminal justice advocates who have long argued that the death penalty is costly, inefficient and prone to error. Al Jazeera cited the Death Penalty Information Center in saying California has spent billions of dollars on capital punishment since 1978 while carrying out only a small number of executions. The outlet also noted broader national context: support for the death penalty has declined from earlier decades, but it still has backing from a majority of Americans, and the issue remains politically divisive.