Newsom Weighs Commuting 563 Death Sentences as Victims' Families and Sheriffs Revolt
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 29
Newsom Weighs Commuting 563 Death Sentences as Victims' Families and Sheriffs Revolt
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 29
Summary
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is reportedly considering commuting all 563 remaining death row sentences to life without parole in his final weeks in office.
Newsom's camp ties the move to his long-standing moral opposition to capital punishment; he imposed an execution moratorium in 2019, and California has carried out no executions since 2006.
A botched Sept. 30 Tennessee execution of Christa Pike, who survived two doses of pentobarbital, helped intensify discussions around a blanket commutation, according to the New York Times.
Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was murdered in 1993, said commuting Richard Allen Davis's sentence would betray victims, while sheriffs and prosecutors called it an affront to juries and surviving families.
The backlash also invokes California voters, who rejected a 2016 repeal of the death penalty and approved a measure to speed appeals, underscoring the political risk of a mass clemency order.