California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he will change every death sentence in the state to life in prison without the chance of parole. The move covers 548 people and would empty the nation's largest death row if the courts clear the remaining cases.

Newsom framed the decision as a matter of conscience in a letter to Californians. He wrote that state-sanctioned killing clashes with the state's values and that life without parole is the harshest penalty he believes California can fairly enforce.

What the clemency covers

His office said the group includes 529 men and 19 women. Each would stay behind bars for life. The commutations would touch only the death sentence itself and would leave convictions and restitution orders and other terms in place.

California has not carried out an execution since 2006. Voters restored capital punishment in 1978 and only 13 people have been executed since then. Newsom already paused executions by executive order in 2019.

A court check for hundreds of cases

Under the state constitution the California Supreme Court must weigh in before the governor can grant clemency to anyone convicted of more than one felony. About 382 of the people on death row fall into that group so at least four of the court's seven justices would need to concur.

Newsom filed an explanatory statement with the court describing a single unconditional commutation for every condemned person: life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He said he is acting on his own authority rather than on individual applications and that the recipients would remain ineligible for release.

Reaction and what comes next

Civil liberties advocates called the step long overdue and said it confronts a punishment they call racist and error-prone and inhumane. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the governor has the power to commute sentences but argued that only the Legislature or the voters can repeal the death penalty. Californians have twice kept capital punishment on the ballot.

Newsom is term limited and is wrapping up his final months in office. Democrat Xavier Becerra is projected to succeed him after Tuesday's midterms. The governor said the decision will weigh on him and that he alone bears responsibility for what it means for victims' families and for the condemned.