Biden commuted 37 death sentences. Will California Governor Gavin Newsom do the same?
Death penalty opponents on Monday called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute the sentences of more than 600 people condemned to California’s death row to life without the possibility of parole after President Joe Biden spared the lives of 37 inmates at the federal level.
Biden’s move to re-sentence all but three federal death penalty inmates came just days after Sacramento County prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty a second time against Adel Ramos, who pleaded guilty in August to the ambush killing of Sacramento police rookie Tara O’Sullivan in 2019.
California has not executed a prisoner since 2006 and has dismantled its death chamber but prosecutors continue to seek capital punishment, leading to costs of $72 million per year for legal proceedings and a backlog in assigning prisoners lawyers of up to 30 years.
On Monday, advocates including the California Catholic Conference of Bishops, the American Civil Liberties Union and groups opposing the death penalty urged Newsom to convert the sentences of condemned inmates in the state.
“If Governor Newsom commutes 600 death sentences, effectively that’s the end of the death penalty in California,” said Natasha Minsker, a lawyer who is a facilitator for the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition.
Jeff Rosen, the Santa Clara County district attorney who pioneered death penalty re-sentencing efforts in the state by asking a court to commute all of the capital sentences from his county to life without parole, praised Biden’s move.
“The death penalty simply doesn’t work, and it will benefit us all when we move past it,” Rosen said. “I hope the governor and my fellow district attorneys arrive at the same conclusion.”
The California Catholic Conference of Bishops sent Newsom a letter urging him to commute the sentences, said executive director Kathleen Domingo.
“While there has not been an execution in California in 18 years, these men and women deserve to be allowed to live without the constant fear of execution,” the bishops wrote in the letter, which was shared with The Bee. “Life without the possibility of parole is an acceptable alternative, honoring the suffering that families and loved ones of murder victims endure while also offering mercy and rehabilitation to the perpetrators.”
Newsom is considering commuting the death sentences but has not yet done so, said Tara Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the Governor’s Office. In 2019, the Democrat imposed a moratorium on carrying them out, saying that capital punishment was often imposed unfairly.
“The idea of commuting death row sentences has long been under consideration,” Gallegos said. In a nod to the fraught politics around the death penalty, she said future actions would be respectful of the needs of victims and their families.
Under California’s Constitution, Newsom has the power to immediately commute the sentences of all condemned inmates who had no prior felony convictions when they were sentenced to death, and he can commute the rest with concurrence of four members of the seven-member California Supreme Court. About a third of the 605 people condemned to death in California prisons are eligible for immediate commutation, according to the state Committee on Revision of the Penal Code’s 2021 death penalty report. He has not commuted any death sentences since taking office.
Newsom, who has two years left on his final term as governor, is likely balancing his own opposition to the death penalty with the possibility of political blowback that could affect any future ambitions, said Elisabeth Semel, the founding director of the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic.
Newsom, a staunch Biden ally, is widely believed to be considering a run for president in 2028. The two-term governor leaves office in 2026 and cannot run again.
Californians have turned down two ballot initiatives that would have abolished the death penalty. Last month, voters vigorously supported a ballot measure that increased penalties and prosecution for certain drug and theft-related crimes.
Semel said she didn’t think Californians would oppose a move to commute the sentences. Biden’s move had prompted a swift reaction from Republican leaders in California.
“First Gavin Newsom, now Joe Biden,” Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher said in an X post, referring to Newsom’s moratorium and the dismantling of death row. “These monsters were convicted and sentenced by a jury of their peers for committing some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.”
Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, said Californians had already “made their voices clear” on the issue by voting against abolishing capital punishment in 2012 and 2016.
“The death penalty is not just a legal consequence; it is a measure of accountability for the most violent murderers who have inflicted unimaginable pain on victims and their families,” she said. “Commuting the sentences of these individuals undermines justice, denies closure to grieving families, and sends a dangerous message that the rights of criminals outweigh the suffering of their victims.
A spokesman for Republican president-elect Donald Trump decried Biden’s move.
“These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director.
But actor and anti-death penalty advocate Mike Farrell, best known for his work on the television series “MASH,” said he hopes Newsom would act — and soon — to begin commutation of California’s death sentences.
“He has demonstrated to all of us that he opposes the death penalty, and he has done so very dramatically not just by declaring a moratorium but by destroying the death chamber,” Farrell said. “I am not sure why he hasn’t done it yet.”
Farrell said he opposed Biden’s decision not to commute the sentences of three federal prisoners, including Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine people at a historically Black church in South Carolina, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Two federal prisoners from California who will now serve life terms instead of facing the death penalty under Biden’s commutation are Jurijus Kadamovas and Louri Mikhel. The two men, who immigrated from the Soviet Union to the Los Angeles area, were sentenced to death in 2007 for killing five people in a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme, leaving their bodies in New Melones Lake. Both men are currently imprisoned in the federal facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 1:56 PM.
