California Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering whether to spare 563 inmates from the death penalty as one of his final acts before leaving office in January.
Conversations over the potential mass clemency for some of the state’s most notorious criminals ramped up after Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike, which went horribly wrong when two doses of the highly potent sedative Pentobarbital failed to kill her, the New York Times reported.
The decision could influence the national public image of Newsom, who is eyeing a White House run in 2028.
Pressure was growing for the governor to enact a mass death row commutation even before the Pike incident, though the California Supreme Court would have to approve commutations for people with multiple felony convictions.
Newsom enacted a moratorium on executions in 2019.
A mass commutation in California could slash the total number of condemned inmates across the country by more than a quarter.
A commutation could spare the likes of Richard Allen Davis — convicted in 1996 of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas — and serial killer Charles Ng, who was convicted of 11 first-degree murders, among other condemned criminals in the Golden State.
California has not carried out an execution since 2006, even though it houses the nation’s largest death row population. Newsom himself introduced the state’s moratorium through an executive order in 2019.
The Post reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
The office previously told The Post that “Governor Newsom has been clear about his position on the death penalty since his first year in office, when he ordered a moratorium on executions.”
The governor criticized the death penalty as discriminatory and wasteful when he signed the executive order pausing executions.
Despite the moratorium, prosecutors in California are still able to seek the death penalty.
More than 200 people have received a death sentence in California since the last execution in 2006, CalMatters reported.
The governor appeared to struggle with the topic in a past episode of his podcast, This is Gavin Newsom, openly asking pro-racial justice attorney Bryan Stevenson: “Do I commute the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere?”
Newsom then later debated against himself: “What do I say to the victims?”
While a mass commutation could earn praise from progressive activists, others cautioned about potential backlash from parts of the country that support the death penalty.
“He is the governor of a very blue, very liberal state, and he has done a bunch of things that wouldn’t happen in swing states,” Matt Bennett, a moderate Democratic strategist, told the Times. “Adding to the list is probably not something he should be doing.”
