President Donald Trump called potential 2028 presidential candidate and current California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s move to commute all of his state’s death sentences a “disaster” this Saturday in a Truth Social post.
“Gavin Newscum’s halting the Death Penalty for all 563 California Death Row inmates, some of the worst cold blooded murderers to have ever lived on the face of the Earth, is a disaster for Justice in America,” said the president, who has supported the death penalty in the past. “Many of these names, people who have killed, over and over again, can’t believe their luck in having a Governor so incompetent and insensitive that he would not let the long and winding legal system prevail. The family members of those who were so viciously killed are, rightfully, devastated. Hopefully this decision will be overturned!”
Newsom announced that California’s death sentences would be changed to life in prison without parole on Nov. 5, the day after Democrats flipped the U.S. House and Senate in the midterm elections. Previously, Newsom put a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a Nov. 5 letter.
Though Newsom acknowledged that the death row prisoners caused “caused indescribable suffering,” he said he determined that the state cannot “morally” kill them. In an interview with Audacy station KNX News last week, political analyst Phil Matier explained that “it’s a deeply emotional issue with Gavin Newsom,” whose father, William Newsom III, was a judge who opposed the death penalty.
Matier noted that Californians have historically supported the death penalty. Anne Marie Schubert, former Elected District Attorney of Sacramento County and president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, told KNX that she found Newsom’s decision disappointing.
“It’s probably the most devastating decision ever made by an elected official when it comes to crime victims’ rights,” she said.
Cal Matters reported that some survivors of the victims killed by these death row inmates were “enraged” at the governor’s choice. One of them was Sandy Friend, the mother of Michael Lyons.
When Lyons was eight years old in 1996, Robert Boyd Rhoades abducted him on the boy’s walk home from elementary school. Rhoades then raped the child, tortured him for 10 hours and murdered him.
“I feel a deep, soul-hurting pain and an angry, screaming feeling inside,” said Friend. “We fought for justice, and now one man has swiped away these monsters’ true sentences in one moment, just like the monsters who took our loved ones’ voices and silenced our loved ones.”
On the other hand, support for the death penalty nationwide has dropped to a low not seen in decades, Gallup reported this week. Just 49% of U.S. adults are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers, with 45% opposed, Gallup said.
“While statistically similar to last year’s 52%, the latest update marks the first time support has been below the majority level since 1971, when it was also at 49%,” it added. “The last time support was lower than now was in 1966, when a record-low 42% favored the death penalty. The high point for support was 80% in 1994.”
This year, the botched lethal injection execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike – who is still alive months after the execution attempt – has thrust issues with the punishment in the spotlight. There are challenges with finding lethal injection drugs and medical professionals to administer it.
Opponents of the death penalty also cite wrongful convictions as a reason to avoid death penalty sentences. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 203 people who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated since 1973.
Newsom is rumored to be eying a run for president in 2028 and former U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra was elected to replace him as governor in the midterms. Prior to Newsom’s move to commute death sentences, Becerra vowed to extend the moratorium on death sentences, though the Death Penalty Information Center noted that he has a record of defending death sentences.
Economist/YouGov polling results from this week show that Newsom was ranked in third place out of a list of potential 2028 Democratic contenders with 13% support. Former Vice President Kamala Harris (who lost the 2024 election to Trump after replacing former President Joe Biden as the candidate) was at the top with 20% and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff came in second with 15% and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) was behind Newsom with 12%. The poll also showed Democrats currently have an edge over Republicans in 2028 predictions.
Looking to that election, Matier said the death penalty could become a nationwide issue.
“It’s also going to be… if he’s on a debate stage, it’s going to be one of the first questions tossed to him by the moderators,” Matier said of Newsom. “Why did you do it? And was it fair? So… I will tell you that people on his team are not all that happy about his decision, but some of them, and they’re going: ‘You know, this is not the greatest way to sort of pave the way to the presidency.’”
