Gavin the Merciful: Newsom's 548 Death Row Commutations of Infamous Child Murderers and Serial Killers Overshadow Biden's Notorious Clemency Spree

Newsom spared every California death row inmate in symbolic move ahead of expected 2028 presidential run

Over the past 50 years, 917 death row inmates in the United States have received clemency. Nearly 60 percent of those inmates were spared on Thursday when outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) commuted the death sentences of the state's 548 death row inmates, including several notorious serial killers and child murderers.

Newsom said California can't ethically kill those sentenced to die as he justified his decision. It's the largest mass commutation of death sentences in U.S. history by a wide margin. The sheer brutality of the crimes committed by those spared by the California governor is incomparable to past commutation sprees. They include infamous child murderers whose crimes made national headlines—including Richard Allen Davis, whose murder of Polly Klaas, 12, in 1993 led to California's "three-strikes law." Also benefiting from the commutations were David Westerfield, who murdered 7-year-old Danielle Van Dam in 2002; Alejandro Avila, whose murder of Samantha Runnion led to the statewide expansion of California's Amber Alert program; and Isauro Aguirre, whose torture murder of Gabriel Fernandez, 8, was the subject of the notable Netflix documentary The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, which has clocked enormous viewership numbers.

Serial killers who received reprieves on Thursday include Randy Kraft, the "Scorecard Killer," who was convicted of sexually assaulting, mutilating, and murdering 16 young men; William Suff, the "Riverside Prostitute Killer," who murdered 12 women; Gerald Parker, the "Bedroom Basher," who raped and murdered five women; Chester Dewayne Turner, a Los Angeles serial killer who raped, strangled, and murdered 14 women, including 1 who was pregnant; Charles Ng, who tortured women and murdered 11 people, including 2 infant boys; and several other inmates convicted of murdering their own children.

Newsom, whose term ends in January and who is widely expected to run for president in 2028, managed to turn the spotlight on himself just two days after Democrats swept the 2026 midterm elections by retaking both the House and Senate with comfortable margins and winning governorships in historically red states including Texas and Georgia.

The clemencies Thursday were largely symbolic, as the inmates on California's death row were at no real risk of facing executions anytime in the near future. Newsom issued an executive moratorium on executions in March 2019, a moratorium California governor-elect Xavier Becerra (D.) pledged to extend. The California Supreme Court will need to approve roughly two-thirds of the clemancies Newsom granted Thursday. California has not carried out an execution in more than 20 years.

Still, Newsom's move overshadows former president Joe Biden's 37 death row commutations in December 2024 by a factor of more than 42. And unlike Newsom, Biden made some exceptions. He did not spare the three best-known federal death row inmates during his commutation spree, leaving Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Charleston AME Church mass killer Dylann Roof, and Tree of Life synagogue mass killer Robert Bowers on death row.

"I have decided to commute every death sentence. Some have said I should not grant clemency to people who committed the 'worst of the worst' crimes," Newsom said in a statement Thursday. "I have concluded that attempting to distinguish among crimes and offenders for clemency would inadvertently create two classes of murder victims—those whose perpetrators deserve the death penalty and then the rest."

Several family members of victims murdered by inmates spared by Newsom criticized the governor for rescinding their lawful sentences. Sandy Fried, the mother of 8-year-old Michael Lyons, who was murdered by death row inmate Robert Rhoades, called Newsom's clemency spree a "disgrace," the Sacramento Bee reported. Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, said the pardon of Richard Allen Davis was "unbelievably disappointing" and a "knife in the back," NBC News reported.

Newsom's move goes against the will of California voters, who have voted several times since 2012 that convicted death row inmates deserve the death penalty. Twice since 2012, the California electorate has rejected ballot measures to abolish the death penalty and convert the sentences of death row inmates to life. And in 2016, California voters approved a ballot measure to speed up appeals and executions in the state.

Newsom's 548 clemencies on Thursday marked the largest single mass clemency of death sentences in American history, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which has tracked 917 clemencies in the United States since 1976, a figure that includes Newsom's. The next-largest came in January 2003, when former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R.) issued a blanket commutation of 167 death row inmates. Ryan said in 2023 he had no regrets over his decision.