On November 5, Governor Newsom announced his decision to commute all death sentences in California to life without the possibility of parole. Click below for frequently asked questions designed for impacted people and families, and attorneys.
FACTS
- What is the process for achieving universal clemency?
- Who supports universal clemency?
- Download fact sheet
- History of Clemency by Governors and Presidents
What is universal clemency?
Universal clemency means commuting every death sentence, rather than an individualized grant of clemency based on individual factors. Universal clemency is an action taken by the executive (governor or president) based on systemic concerns regarding the use of the death penalty in all cases in order to correct an injustice that applies across the board.
Why should Governor Newsom pursue universal clemency?
The Governor knows California’s death penalty process is inhumane, dysfunctional, racially biased, and error-prone. He should use his executive authority to confront the systemic failures of this outdated policy and take steps to grant clemency in all death-sentenced cases. This isn’t about individual cases, it is about a system that is unjust, ineffective, and unfixable.
- There are 565 individuals on California’s death row (1). It is the biggest death row in the nation and one of the largest death rows in the world (2). Two-thirds of the individuals have been there for more than 20 years, and dozens of individuals have been on death row for more than 40 years with literally decades of delays caused by California’s inability to provide lawyers to handle capital appeals.
- The death penalty reflects a legacy of racial discrimination. Sixty-nine percent of the people under a sentence of death are people of color, and one-third are Black (3). Death sentences are more likely to be imposed when the victims are white than when they are Black or Latino, while the majority of homicides with Black or Latino victims go unsolved (4).
- Almost half of the people on death row are there for crimes they committed as youth under the age of 26, and approximately one in six were under 21 years old. Recognizing that young people’s brains are not fully developed until their mid 20s (5), California has enacted several reforms to address the diminished culpability of youthful offenders (6). However, individuals on death row and those serving life without parole are excluded from these policies.
- More than one third of people on death row in California have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. (7)
- A study by the National Academy of Sciences estimates that at least four percent of people sentenced to death in the U.S. are innocent (8). California has already released seven men from death row due to wrongful conviction (9). A fact sheet by Habeas Corpus Resource Center explains the California innocence cases.
How should universal clemency be implemented?
It is critical that actions to address systemic harms be taken in a way that do not inadvertently cause other harm. Attention must be paid to the potential impact of universal clemency on the families of victims in death-sentenced cases and the potential impact on individuals now sentenced to death to avoid unintended consequences.
First, universal clemency must be approached with sensitivity to the varied needs of the family members of victims in death penalty cases. Access to information and support services should be provided in a proactive manner.
Second, with regard to people now sentenced to death, universal clemency must be approached in a manner that will:
- Preserve legal claims in individual cases including claims related to innocence, racial bias, or fairness of an individual’s case which will continue after the death sentence has been commuted.
- Maintain access to counsel and continuity of counsel.
- Preserve future opportunities for individualized clemency consideration and other potential avenues for resentencing.
- Provide support systems and mental health counseling for impacted individuals.
Has universal clemency been done before?
More than half a dozen U.S. governors have granted universal clemency to everyone sentenced to death in their state (9) (See also the History section below.) Clemency has also been used by numerous executives to address other systemic issues and outdated sentencing policies.
What is the process for achieving universal clemency?
According to the California Constitution, the governor has the unilateral authority to commute the sentences of anyone on death row who does not have a separate felony conviction. For anyone with a separate felony conviction (about 60% of people), the governor must submit his request to the California State Supreme Court. In those cases, a majority of the court, or four out of seven members, must vote to approve the governor’s request.
Who supports universal clemency?
The California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition is a diverse coalition made up of faith, racial justice, civic, legal, and labor organizations, as well as murder victims’ family members, and families impacted by the death penalty. We value practical solutions that promote racial justice and equal prosperity and shifting funding from punitive strategies to strengthening marginalized communities. We seek feasible and humane alternatives to incarceration and support all justice-impacted persons and communities in their healing and recovery.
Fact Sheet
A printable copy of this fact sheet is available for download below.
History of Clemency by American Governors and Presidents
California Governors
California is the only state in the country with a large death row and no grants of clemency in the last 50 years.
Governors of Other States
2024 Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) (15 of 136 death sentences)
2022 Gov. Kate Brown (D-OR) (all death sentences)
2020 Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) (all death sentences)
2015 Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD) (all death sentences)
2011 Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) (all 15 remaining death sentences)
2007 Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) (all death sentences)
2003 Gov. George Ryan (R-IL) (all death sentences)
1991 Gov. Richard Celeste (D-OH) (8 of 101 death sentences)
1986 Gov. Toney Anaya (D-NM) (all death sentences)
1979 Gov. Leonard Ray Blanton (D-TN) (52 commutations: One month after being charged by a federal court in a cash-for-clemency scandal, Gov. Blanton commuted the sentences of 49 death row inmates and pardoned 3 others on his way out of office following a scandal)
1976 Gov. Mills Goodwin, Jr. (R-VA) ( all death sentences)
1971 Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller (R-AR) (all death sentences)
1965 Gov. Frank Clement (D-TN) (all death sentences after the legislature defeated an abolition bill by a single vote)
1962-1964 Gov. Endicott “Chub” Peabody (D-MA) (all death sentences)
1963 Gov. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) (all death sentences after the death penalty was abolished by state referendum)
1957-1959 Gov. Robert D. Holmes (D-OR) (all death sentences that arose during his term)
1955-1959 Gov. Averill Harriman (D-NY) (all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented- total number unknown)
1933-1942 Gov. Herbert Lehman (D-NY) (all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented- total number unknown)
1924 Gov. Thomas McRae (D-AR) (commuted the sentences of 6 Black men convicted in a race riot)
1919 Gov. Alfred E. Smith (D-NY) (all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented- total number unknown)
1915 Gov. Frank Byrne (R-SD) (Byrne called for the abolition of the death penalty in his 1913 inaugural address, and signed the ban into law by February of 1915)
1912-1915 Gov. W.P. Hunt (D-AZ) (Upon entering office in 1912, Governor Hunt declared that no executions would take place in Arizona during his tenure. He granted 105 pardons, commutations and reprieves in his first term. Gov. Hunt was so liberal in his use of executive clemency power, that the state legislature attempted to revise the penal code in 1913 to restrict his independence. However, Hunt killed the legislation with a veto. In the following years, Hunt assumed the presidency of the Anti-Capital Punishment Society of America, survived a recall effort launched by capital punishment advocates, and continued to lead the fight against the death penalty in his state until a 1916 referendum repealed the death penalty by a margin of 152 votes.)
1911-1915 Gov. Lee Cruce (D-OK) (all death sentence imposed during his term)
1909-1913 Gov. George Washington Donaghey (D-AR) (Granted 396 commutations at once: Due to the extraordinarily cruel nature of punishment, as well as the “lack of uniformity of punishment for the same crime,” Donaghey commuted the sentences of all people working in Arkansas “chain gangs”)
Presidents
Until 1960, every U.S. president except Warren Harding commuted at least one death sentence during their term. The following made blanket clemency grants.
2024 President Joseph Biden (37 of 40 death sentences)
1918 President Woodrow Wilson (10 soldiers from Texas)
1872 President Ulysses S. Grant (blanket pardons for 150,000 former confederate soldiers except 500 leaders with his Amnesty Act of 1872)
1868 President Andrew Johnson (7 including blanket pardons to all former confederates convicted of treason in the Civil War)
President Abraham Lincoln
1863 (blanket amnesty/pardon to persons convicted of treason in the Civil War, including Brigham Young)
1864 (Dakota indigenous tribes in Minnesota responded to the government’s unkept promises by attacking and killing hundreds of settlers and driving over 30,000 from their homes. It was the bloodiest attack on civilians on U.S. soil prior to 9/11. U.S. Army forces put down the rebellion and condemned 303 Dakotas to death. As the President and two government lawyers poured over military records, they discovered that some trials had lasted only 15 minutes, and some people were condemned solely based on hearsay or proximity to the uprising. Lincoln spared 264 out of 303.)
1858 President James Buchanan (12 including blanket pardons to Mormons convicted of treason and sedition against the United States in the Utah War)
1828 President John Quincy Adams (blanket pardons to Ho-Chunk tribe members sentenced to death in the Winnebago War)
Around 1817 President James Monroe (blanket pardons to approx. 13 to 40 people convicted of piracy and sentenced in the War of 1812)
1812-1816 President James Madison (blanket pardon/amnesty to persuade deserters sentenced to death to return to army service and to Quaker conscientious objectors)
1801 President Thomas Jefferson (blanket pardons for people convicted under the Sedition Act 1798)
1798 President John Adams (blanket pardons for a group of tax resisters convicted of treason)
1774-1775 President George Washington (pardoned 16 Pennsylvanians convicted of treason in the Whiskey Rebellion)
List of CA Govs who granted DP Clemency
- 1850-1851 Gov. Peter Burnett
- 1851-1852 Gov. John McDougal
- 1852-1856 Gov. John Bigler
- 1856-1858 Gov. J. Neely Johnson
- 1858-1860 Gov. John Weller
- 1860-1862 Gov. John Downey
- 1862-1863 Gov. Leland Stanford
- 1863-1867 Gov. Frederick Low
- 1867-1871 Gov. Henry Haight
- 1871-1875 Gov. Newton Booth
- 1875 Gov. Romualdo Pacheco
- 1880-1883 Gov. George Perkins
- 1883-1887 Gov. George Stoneman
- 1887-1891 Gov. Robert Waterman
- 1891-1895 Gov. Henry Harrison Markham
- 1903-1907 Gov. George Pardee
- 1907-1911 Gov. James Gillett
- 1911-1917 Gov. Hiram Johnson
- 1917-1923 Gov. William Stephens
- 1923-1927 Gov. Friend Richardson
- 1927-1931 Gov. C. C. Young
- 1931-1934 Gov. James Rolph
- 1934-1939 Gov. Frank Merriam
- 1941-1943 Gov. Culbert Olson
- 1943-1953 Gov. Earl Warren
- 1953-1959 Gov. Goodwin Knight
- 1959-1967 Gov. Pat Brown (D-CA)
- 1967-1975 Gov. Ronald Reagan