LDF Applauds Gov. Newsom’s Historic Commutation of Every Person’s Death Sentence on California’s Death Row

Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted the sentences of California's entire death row, totaling 548 sentences.

California held approximately a quarter of the entire country's death row population. Governor Newsom's act of commutation will be the largest reduction in the U.S. death row population since Furman v. Georgia, LDF's Supreme Court victory that struck down all existing death penalty statutes in 1972, ushering in a nearly five-year moratorium that saved over 600 lives.

Some of Governor Newsom's commutations will require approval by California's Supreme Court.

In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement:

"Today, California made history. In a monumental and sweeping act, Governor Newsom made tremendous strides towards permanently ending the use of the death penalty in California. This is the largest death row commutation in the nation's history.

"Gov. Newsom's act today should embolden other governors to follow in his footsteps and work to permanently ban the use of the death penalty in their respective states. The death penalty is a flawed, unconscionable relic of the past, rooted in slavery. Today's commutations are a repudiation of that past and of the very premise of state-sanctioned killings. We are hopeful that it is just the beginning.

"While today's life affirming decision takes death by execution off the table for more people than in any other act in U.S. history, the ability to sentence people to death in California remains. Thus, we will continue our challenge to the constitutionality of this racially discriminatory and inhumane punishment in California."

In Office of the Public Defender et al. v. Bonta, LDF and partners are currently challenging California's death penalty in the state's Supreme Court on the grounds that it is administered in a racially discriminatory manner and violates the equal protection and cruel or unusual punishment provisions of the California Constitution.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.