California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced plans to commute the death sentences of all 548 people on the state’s death row, changing their punishment to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The move, made as Mr Newsom prepares to leave office after eight years, would affect 529 men and 19 women. California has more death-row prisoners than any other US state.
Mr Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019, but hundreds of prisoners remained sentenced to death. He said the latest decision was one of the most difficult of his career because it would bring painful memories for the families of victims.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” he said in an open letter.
He added: “As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution.”
The California Supreme Court must approve clemency for anyone convicted of a felony more than once. That requirement means the court would need to approve 382 of the commutations, or about 70 per cent of the total, according to figures provided by Mr Newsom’s office.
If completed, the commutations would remove about a quarter of all death sentences in the United States, according to the New York Times.
The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the announcement. Its executive director, Anthony Romero, said: “These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long.”
The ACLU is pursuing a legal challenge to California’s death penalty statute, alleging that it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
California voters rejected a ballot measure in 2016 that would have abolished the death penalty in the state. Mr Newsom has previously said that it was wrong for the government to kill its citizens and that capital punishment had discriminated in practice against people with mental illnesses and people of colour.
