Gavin Newsom’s tenure as California’s governor ends on January 4, 2027, when his successor, Xavier Becerra, is sworn in. However, the buzz over one of his final major decisions likely won’t quiet down by then.
On November 5, 2026, Newsom announced plans to use the power of his office to commute the death sentences of all 548 people currently sentenced to death in California to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The changes will not take effect until the required legal steps are completed, including recommendations from the California Supreme Court for 382 people with more than one felony conviction.
The soon-to-be-former governor said that state-sanctioned killing doesn’t reflect California’s values. Although California has not executed anyone since 2006 and has had a formal moratorium on executions since 2019, commutation would go further: It would replace existing death sentences with life without parole rather than merely pause executions.
As might be expected with a policy involving state-sanctioned executions, the move has earned accolades from death penalty opponents and drawn anger from the family members of some victims.
The Ultimate “Eye for an Eye”
Long a topic of heated discussion, the death penalty, also called capital punishment, is the government’s most severe criminal punishment. States may impose it for certain aggravated murder offenses, subject to constitutional limits. As of 2026, 23 states and the District of Columbia have abolished the practice. It remains legal in 27 states, although some, like California, have moratoriums in place to prevent executions from being carried out.
Federal executions resumed during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2020 after a 17-year hiatus. The Biden administration imposed a moratorium in 2021. After returning to office in 2025, Trump ordered renewed use of the federal death penalty, and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi lifted the moratorium.
California’s Legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1977, and voters approved an expanded death penalty law in 1978. But it’s been 20 years since an inmate was executed in the state. Gov. Newsom declared a moratorium in 2019.
While residents have twice defeated ballot initiatives proposing the abolition of the death penalty, they’ve also approved changes allowing condemned prisoners to be housed outside traditional death row units. CDCR subsequently transferred condemned men from San Quentin to other prisons and moved condemned women into the general population at the Central California Women’s Facility. Even if Newsom’s proposed commutations take effect, the death penalty in California will remain available as a punishment in pending and future cases.
Can He Commute All 548 Sentences?
Gov. Newsom has authority under California law to reduce sentences, but can he truly remove the death penalty from 548 prisoners with a stroke of his pen? He issued a moratorium on carrying out executions in 2019, which acts as a pause or a suspension for those with death sentences. However, that’s not the extent of his powers.
Governors can grant clemency to those convicted of crimes under their state’s laws, which can take a few different forms. A reprieve offers a temporary delay that pauses an execution. Prisoners may also ask courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, for a stay of execution while legal challenges are considered. A judicial stay is separate from executive clemency.
Governors can also issue a pardon. In California, a pardon generally recognizes rehabilitation and may restore rights or remove certain legal consequences of a conviction. It is not the same as reducing a prison sentence.
Commutation, which is what Gov. Newsom is pursuing, allows a governor to reduce a prisoner’s sentence. In this instance, his intent is to change the death sentences of all 548 prisoners into terms of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. While he does have commutation power, California’s Constitution requires an additional step for those with two or more felony convictions.
For those with multiple felony convictions, the California Supreme Court must recommend any pardon or commutation, with at least four justices concurring. This means 382 of Newsom’s proposed commutations require recommendations from the court, which currently has one vacant seat. The other 166 do not require a Supreme Court recommendation, although the necessary legal steps must still be completed before their commutations take effect.
Newsom has asked the court to act before the end of the year so he can complete the process before leaving office. If completed, the action would be the largest mass commutation of death sentences in U.S. history.
Gov. Newsom’s actions may affect the futures of 548 prisoners in California, but they would not change other states’ death penalty laws. On the same day Newsom announced his plan, executions took place in Florida, Indiana, and Alabama. The Death Penalty Information Center’s schedule listed six additional active execution dates for the remainder of 2026, including one in the U.S. military system.
