Sacramento, CA— The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (CJLF) today condemned Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 people on California’s death row to life without the possibility of parole. In 2019, the Governor promised that his execution moratorium would not “alter any current conviction or sentence.” With two months left in his term, he has broken that promise to the families of every victim in these cases.

“Justice, fairness, and human rights should include the families of the people who suffered the most unimaginable loss of their loved one,” said Anne Marie Schubert, President and CEO of CJLF. “Juries weighed the evidence, judges imposed these sentences, and voters upheld them repeatedly. Today one Governor on his way out of office overruled all of them, and those families were never even considered.”

In an open letter released today, the Governor wrote that “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.” California voters have disagreed at the ballot box. In 2012, they rejected Proposition 34, which would have repealed the death penalty. In 2016, they rejected Proposition 62, another repeal measure, and approved Proposition 66 to speed up death penalty appeals.

“Behind every one of these 548 sentences is a family: parents who buried a child, children who lost a mother, and officers’ families who were handed a folded flag,” Schubert said. “In 2019 this Governor promised them that no sentence would change. They were promised justice and given finality.  That was destroyed today. His letter talks about California values, where do these values stand when we ignore the rights of crime victims. Today he decided their voices don’t matter.”

The death row population includes the worst of the worst: child killers, serial killers, mass shooters, those who killed police officers in the line of duty, and others who murdered in the most unimaginable way. Examples of these killers include the killers of 8-year-old Michael Lyons, 12-year-old Polly Klaas, 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, and Pittsburg Police Officer Larry Lasater.

The Governor cannot complete most of these commutations on his own. Under Article V, Section 8 of the California Constitution, he may not commute the sentence of anyone twice convicted of a felony without a recommendation from the California Supreme Court, with four justices concurring. According to press reports, nearly 70 percent of the 548 cases fall into that category and must go to the Court before the Governor’s term ends in January.

“The Constitution gives the Supreme Court a real role here, not a rubber stamp,” Schubert said. “We urge the justices to review each of these cases, one at a time, the way the law and practice demands. They should hear from the families before they recommend anything.”

About the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation

The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation is a Sacramento-based nonprofit public interest law organization dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the accused. Learn more at cjlf.org.