By California Gov. Gavin Newsom is commuting the death sentences of all 548 people on the state’s death row, changing their punishment to life in prison without parole. The move would affect more than a quarter of the nation’s condemned prisoners and marks the largest mass commutation in U.S. history, according to CalMatters.
One of the prisoners affected is serial killer Charles Ng. Author and commentator Daniel Friedman pointed to Ng in a post on Twitter to show how sickening Newsom’s move was:
Among the killers whose sentences Gavin Newsom commuted today is serial killer Charles Ng, who kidnapped families to his remote dungeon and tortured and raped them to death in front of each other. https://t.co/X85E5yhaSa
— Daniel Friedman (@DanFriedman81) November 5, 2026
Ng was convicted of 11 murders committed with accomplice Leonard Lake in Northern California in 1984 and 1985. The California Supreme Court’s account of the case describes how victims disappeared from communities across the region before investigators connected the killings to Lake’s property in Wilseyville. Ng was sentenced to death in 1999.
Newsom just commuted the sentence of the man who locked this boy up in a cage, made him eat cat shit and shot him with BBs for fun only to watch him die. https://t.co/fhzOjTfC4K pic.twitter.com/bnb2vNYOfu
— AltAzn (@Alt_Azn) November 5, 2026
Sacramento County’s District Attorney Thien Ho laid into Newsom’s blanket commutation, as well.
A statement from Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho. pic.twitter.com/NuspYtYFci
— Sacramento County DA (@SacCountyDA) November 6, 2026
As did Nathan Hochman, the District Attorney for Los Angeles County:
District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman's Statement on Governor Newsom’s Decision to Commute Death Sentences pic.twitter.com/FLBfh3BqhF
— Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (@LADAOffice) November 5, 2026
Newsom’s action caps years of opposition to capital punishment. He imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019, shortly after taking office, and California has not carried out an execution since 2006. The governor’s move comes as he prepares to leave office and weighs a possible 2028 presidential run.
In a letter to Californians, Newsom wrote that he was acting because “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us.” He also said the decision does not repeal the death penalty or prevent prosecutors from seeking it in future cases. California voters have twice voted to keep capital punishment, in 2012 and 2016.
The commutations are not final in every case. Under the state constitution, the California Supreme Court must approve clemency for people with prior felony convictions. That requirement applies to 382 of the 548 prisoners, or about 70 percent, according to Newsom’s office.
Newsom is applying the decision to everyone on death row, including people convicted of crimes that drew national attention, in hopes of running on it during the upcoming primary for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. If the court approves the commutations, California’s death row, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, will be emptied.
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