Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at San Quentin State Prison and announces plans to transform the facility to focus on training and rehabilitation during a visit on March 17, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom is commuting the death sentences of 548 people, clearing the California death row for the first time since the state conducted hangings in the late 19th century.
It is a monumental move in the history of capital punishment in America: The prisoners represent more than a quarter of the nation’s condemned inmates.
And it is a decision Newsom, a longtime opponent of the death penalty, has spoken about in starkly personal terms. In 2019, shortly after taking office, he issued a moratorium on executions and then dismantled the execution chamber in San Quentin State Prison. It was just three years after voters rejected a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty and instead approved one to speed them up. At the time, the governor said he couldn’t be responsible for killing another person.
“After nearly 30 years in office I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” Newsom wrote in a letter addressed “to all Californians.”…
