On the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to commute all 548 death sentences in the state, three men were executed in Indiana, Florida and Alabama. The contrast highlighted the divide over capital punishment: While some states continued carrying out executions, Newsom said California should no longer prepare to do so.
The three executions on Thursday made the split visible in real time, underscoring that the country is not moving in one direction on capital punishment.
Newsom’s plan would commute the sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It would not free anyone on death row, erase their convictions or repeal California’s death penalty law. If completed, however, it would be the largest mass commutation of death sentences in U.S. history — and a defining move as Newsom considers a potential 2028 presidential run.
Newsom made clear that he sees the choice as a matter of conscience. In a letter released Thursday, he wrote that “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.” He acknowledged the people condemned to death had caused “indescribable suffering” to victims, their families and communities. But after speaking with victims and survivors, Newsom said he could not distinguish among the crimes, because each family experiences its loss as the “worst of the worst.”
His proposed answer is the same sentence for everyone on death row: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“These offenders will die in prison but not by our hand,” he wrote. Newsom also said he hopes the change will allow the public to remember victims rather than keep focusing on the people who killed them.
He acknowledged that the decision will anger and hurt some Californians, adding, “I alone bear responsibility.”
The announcement builds on steps Newsom took earlier in office. In 2019, he imposed a moratorium on executions, ordered the closure of San Quentin’s execution chamber and repealed the state’s lethal-injection protocol.
California has not executed anyone since 2006. But those actions left every death sentence in place. This plan goes further by seeking to change the sentences themselves, while leaving the death penalty legal for future cases.
The plan now faces a legal and political test. Under the California Constitution, the governor must obtain a recommendation from the state Supreme Court before commuting the sentence of anyone convicted of a felony more than once. Newsom has asked the court to review 382 cases before his term ends in January.
A victims’ rights legal group says it plans to challenge Newsom’s move. Meanwhile, constitutional scholars quoted by the Daily Journal say the governor’s clemency authority is broad, while the state Supreme Court’s review is more limited.
The backlash is already clear. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey criticized Newsom’s plan, saying California was letting criminals escape justice. California prosecutors and victims’ advocates argue that a blanket decision disregards the individual cases and the jury verdicts that sent people to death row.
Supporters say the system is too flawed to administer fairly and that clemency does not undo convictions or make anyone eligible for release.
That divide could follow Newsom into a potential 2028 presidential campaign. The decision could energize Democrats who favor a more aggressive challenge to capital punishment, particularly those who point to racial disparities in how the death penalty is applied.
It could also give opponents an opening to portray him as overriding juries, voters and victims’ families.
Public opinion remains divided: A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October found that 55% of Americans support the death penalty for people convicted of the most serious crimes, compared with 31% who oppose it.
Newsom’s move does not abolish the death penalty in California, and the required court reviews still lie ahead. But it has reignited a national debate over what justice demands — and whether a governor should use clemency to change the outcome of every capital case at once. That may become the question voters ask him long after the headlines fade.
