California’s death penalty stands at a crossroads, and it’s Gov. Gavin Newsom who holds the key to what happens next.
Back in 2019, Newsom halted executions statewide and had the gas chamber’s chair hauled out of San Quentin. To many observers, that seemed like the death knell for capital punishment in California. But the reality on the ground tells a different story: 546 men and 18 women remain under active death sentences in the state, according to a new joint analysis by The Marshall Project and CalMatters. That’s roughly a quarter of every death sentence currently on the books nationwide.
Now, with his time in the governor’s office winding down, Newsom faces a decision with enormous consequences. Advocacy groups, both local and international, are pressing him to commute all 562 death sentences to life without the possibility of parole before he leaves. Such a move would align with his long-standing opposition to executions and would ripple far beyond California’s borders. It would also be a politically loaded gamble for a governor widely believed to be eyeing a run for the White House.
The irony isn’t lost on Newsom himself. Before he took office, he told CalMatters he had urged then-Gov. Jerry Brown to tackle the death penalty issue once and for all. Brown didn’t, and now the unresolved question has landed squarely in Newsom’s lap.
As Marshall Project journalists Maurice Chammah and Jill Castellano put it in their analysis, California has ended up with “a bloated, dysfunctional system that satisfies virtually nobody” — neither the state’s outright abolitionists nor supporters of capital punishment who want to see sentences actually carried out.
Complicating matters further, local district attorneys haven’t stopped seeking death sentences despite the moratorium. At least 25 people have been condemned to death in California since Newsom’s 2019 order, and 11 of those cases came out of Riverside County alone — a reminder that the Inland Empire remains a significant battleground in the state’s capital punishment debate.
Ending new death sentences altogether would require voters to repeal the punishment through a statewide ballot measure, something that hasn’t gained enough traction to date.
If Newsom leaves office without granting clemency, the unresolved fate of California’s death row will fall to whoever succeeds him. Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who backed the death penalty during his tenure as attorney general, has said he would keep the moratorium in place if elected governor. Republican candidate Steve Hilton, meanwhile, has indicated he would lift the moratorium — even though he says he personally opposes capital punishment.
For now, the question of whether California will empty its death row or continue in this legal limbo remains unanswered, leaving hundreds of inmates, their families, and crime victims’ families waiting for clarity that may not come until a new governor takes office.
Original source: CalMatters
