The California governor announced the move on Thursday in an open letter in which he called state-sanctioned killing “incompatible” with the state’s values and morally wrong – though the state hasn’t executed anyone in two decades. Until the move, California’s death row population was the largest in the Western Hemisphere and represented more than a quarter of the death row prisoners in the entire US. The commutation also ranks among the largest of its kind in modern world history, though it falls well short of Kenya, which commuted 4,000 death sentences in 2009.
Hard Numbers
California clears death row
Natalie Johnson
By Natalie JohnsonNovember 06, 2026
Natalie Johnson
Natalie Johnson is the Deputy Head of Content at GZERO Media and edits the GZERO Daily newsletter. Her career has spanned producing for broadcast cable news at outlets like MSNBC, VICE TV, and NewsNation, as well as writing for digital media. She's also the creator and co-editor of an anthology called "Black Love Letters," published in 2023 through John Legend's GetLifted book imprint. Natalie studied political science at Scripps College and holds a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University.
