June 27, 2025– THE CLOCK IS TICKING
Gov. Gavin Newsom still has a year and a half left in office, but advocates are starting their call now for him to commute, or reduce, all death sentences in California.
The state has 585 people sentenced to death. Throughout his time in the top office, Newsom has repeatedly spoken out against the death penalty system, calling it “a failure” that discriminates based on race and wealth with “no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent.” In 2019, he set a moratorium on the death penalty and repealed the lethal injection protocol. In 2022, he dismantled the death row at San Quentin Prison, sending condemned prisoners to 20 other state facilities…