California's Newsom says he will commute all death sentences
The governor said condemned prisoners in California would serve life without parole instead, in a decision the AP reported without giving a number affected.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he will commute all death sentences in the state to life without parole, a decision that would take every condemned prisoner in California out of reach of execution.
The Associated Press reported the announcement on 5 November. The report gave no number of prisoners affected, no date for the commutations, and no word on whether state prosecutors would go to court against them.
Commuting a sentence changes the punishment a court imposed. It does not release the prisoner and does not overturn a conviction. Under the change Newsom described, people sentenced to death in California would instead serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, a term that carries no scheduled release date.
Newsom is the elected head of California's state government, which runs the state's prison system. California, on the Pacific coast, is the most populous state in the United States.
The decision covers the whole state at once rather than individual cases. The Associated Press report did not say which prisoners would be moved, when the paperwork would be signed, or what happened to inmates whose appeals are still before the courts.
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