Newsom commutes all California death sentences; 3 other states have executions on same day

California Governor Gavin Newsom is leaving office in January. But before he goes, he's making one of the biggest decisions of his political career. He's sparing the lives of all 548 inmates on the state's death row. Newsom announced Thursday that he's commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole. It's the largest mass commutation of death sentences in modern American history. California has more inmates on death row than any other state in the country. Newsom explained his decision in an open letter to Californians. He wrote, State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us. I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency. Death penalty opponents are already rolling out a national ad campaign praising Newsom's decision. Gavin Newsom has just taken a historic step toward ending the death penalty. Do we have the right to kill? But let's take a closer look at who's on California's death row. And I don't believe we do. Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas, We're better than that. and Charles Ng, convicted of killing 11 people in the 1980s. Victims' families are divided. Some support Newsom's decision. Others are furious. And this isn't necessarily settled. More than half of the commutations require approval from California's Supreme Court. A victims' rights group also plans to sue. His successor, Javier Becerra, has pledged to keep the state's moratorium on executions.