Newsom commutes sentences of all California death row prisoners

By Devon M. Sayers, Dalia Faheid, CNN

(CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday he is commuting every death sentence in his state to a sentence of life in prison without parole.

“My decision today comes after nearly three decades of openly opposing state-sanctioned executions as an elected official,” Newsom wrote in an open letter to California residents shared by his office.

The move will impact the lives of 548 people in the state, which “make up the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere,” said Newsom, who is mulling a 2028 White House bid.

Newsom’s announcement comes as the death penalty faces renewed scrutiny following Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike in late September.

In the weeks since Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital, Tennessee paused the state’s remaining executions but requests to stop executions elsewhere have been denied in courts. Three lethal injections were scheduled on Thursday, with Florida and Alabama planning to execute two men hours after an execution in Indiana.

The American Civil Liberties Union in a statement Thursday praised Newsom’s decision, saying it marks “a historic step towards ending the death penalty in California and across the country.”

“These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “By taking this step, Gov. Newsom has affirmed that the death penalty has no place in California and he showed real courage by confronting racialized injustice head-on.”

California’s death row prisoners include serial killers Randy Kraft, also known as the “Southern California Strangler”; Charles Ng, who was convicted of killing 11 people in California in the 1980s; and Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klass in 1993.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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