Gavin Newsom Has Commuted the Largest Death Row in the Western Hemisphere

As one of his final acts in office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has commuted the sentences of all 548 people sentenced to death in California to life without the possibility of parole—a quarter of the death row prisoners in the United States—he announced in a November 5 letter.

California has not executed anyone since 2006, when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor. Amid legal challenges to lethal injection protocols, executions were de facto paused for years. And shortly after Newsom took office in 2019, he instituted a formal moratorium on executions. Now, Newsom plans to empty what is still the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.

“After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 presidential candidate, wrote Thursday. “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.”

The decision does not permanently repeal the death penalty—California is still one of 27 states that retain capital punishment, though Newsom’s newly elected successor Xavier Becerra has committed to extending the execution moratorium once he is in office. Newsom’s commutations must be individually approved by California’s courts.

The United States has executed 33 people in 2026 so far. It’s one of a few dozen nations that have the death penalty on the books—most of which, like California, do not actually carry out executions. According to Amnesty International, only 17 countries, including the US, executed anyone in 2025. Executions, even in the US, are increasingly unpopular—and, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, executing a person is consistently more expensive than other punishments.

Nonetheless, the current White House has encouraged an expansion of capital punishment in America, bringing back federal firing squads earlier this year and floating the idea of livestreaming an execution.

But the overwhelming majority of death row prisoners are held at the state level, like California’s, where governors hold the power of clemency. As Newsom wrote Tuesday: “I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.”