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….