California governor to grant clemency to all 548 death row inmates in state

​California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday he ​will commute the death sentences of all ‌548 ​inmates currently condemned to execution in his state, the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. The announcement, in a three-page letter addressed to "all Californians," came as ‌Newsom, a Democrat who is expected to seek his party's presidential nomination in 2028, neared the end of his second and final four-year term as governor.

Newsom, who previously served as mayor of San Francisco and lieutenant governor, declared ‌a moratorium on executions in March 2019, about two months after first taking office as governor. California last ‌put a prisoner to death in 2006 when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor. "After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish," Newsom wrote in his announcement. "I take this action because I firmly believe ⁠that state-sanctioned ​killing is incompatible with California's ⁠values."

The US debate over capital punishment intensified recently after the failed execution by the state of Tennessee on September 30 of condemned ⁠killer Christa Pike, who survived two attempts to inject her with lethal drugs. Pike was hospitalized afterward and was sent back ​to prison on October 10.

The death penalty received further scrutiny after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced ⁠plans to livestream the planned firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others ⁠in ​a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on November 5, 2009. President Donald Trump later ruled out a livestream of the execution, but Hasan is still scheduled to be executed by firing squad ⁠on December 3.

About 15 countries still actively execute people, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. The ⁠death penalty remains on the ⁠books in 27 US states, although executions are concentrated in a handful of those states, and more than 20 states have abolished capital punishment altogether.