January 2026

January 17, 2026 —

At 12:38 a.m on Jan. 17, 2006, the state of California executed Clarence Ray Allen, 76, by lethal injection inside San Quentin State Prison. Allen had been convicted of three counts of first degree murder with special circumstances, and had been sent to Death Row in 1982, nearly a quarter of a century prior.

Now, on the 20th anniversary of the state’s most recent execution, civil rights advocates are pushing to make this California’s last execution ever by ending the state’s death penalty. They want Gov. Gavin Newsom to begin the lengthy legal process to commute the sentences of nearly 600 Death Row inmates and stop the charade of seeking the death penalty — a punishment that does little to deter capital crimes, and costs the state billions to pursue — only to see those inmates sit in capital punishment stasis for years….

JANUARY 16, 2026 —

On Jan. 17, 2006, California carried out what would turn out to be the last execution in the Golden State in the next two decades. Clarence Ray Allen was put to death at San Quentin State Prison, having been convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for a crime committed in 1980.

At the time of his crimes, the murder rate in California was at or near an all-time high. There were approximately 14.5 homicides per 100,000 people in the state.

Like many places, California had been in the grip of a suffocating and punitive tough-on-crime politics.

Things are different today. California has learned to live without executions, and it is better off because of it.

Its governor, Gavin Newsom, made his state’s execution pause official when he declared a formal moratorium in 2019. He has led the way in asking citizens of his state to face the death penalty’s manifold injustices….

SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 – SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. —

Gov. Gavin Newsom is a fervent opponent of the death penalty who has halted executions in the state since taking office in 2019 and dismantled Death Row at San Quentin State Prison, moving hundreds of condemned inmates to other prisons. He is also a possible Democratic candidate for president in a nation that, while sharply divided over capital punishment, often rejects candidates who can be labeled soft on crime.

So how will Newsom respond to pleas by other death penalty foes, including speakers at a San Francisco event Thursday led by the renowned Sister Helen Prejean, to commute all 581 death sentences in California to life in prison?

Newsom isn’t saying….