California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is considering sparing the lives of 563 death row inmates in his state.
Newsom is considering commuting the sentences of all 563 prisoners on California’s death row as one of his final acts in office, two people familiar with his thinking told the New York Times.
The governor ramped up talks with his advisers last week, after the botched execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike — although the sources claim Newsom had been mulling it over for several months.
Newsom reportedly weighed his options in a rush of phone calls, meetings, and Zoom conversations, the people familiar with his talks said.
California has not carried out an execution in 20 years, and the leading candidate to succeed Newsom has pledged to keep the moratorium on capital punishment in place.
The governor’s closest advisers have given him conflicting advice, the sources told the New York Times.
While it remains unclear if Christa Pike’s botched execution in Tennessee will serve as the catalyst for hundreds of California death row inmates to get off the hook, the convicted murderess’s failed lethal injections have already spared at least one death row inmate from meeting his maker this year.
As Breitbart News reported, double murderer Gary Wayne Sutton was granted several more weeks to live as a result of Pike’s botched execution after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) paused all remaining executions scheduled before the end of the year.
Sutton, who was initially scheduled to be put to death on December 3, was the state’s only remaining execution set for 2026.
But the convicted killer, who bailed his friend out of jail 34 years ago only to shoot him dead and then kill the man’s sister, will now get to live to see 2027.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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