California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that, despite promises he made to voters when running for the office in 2018, he's commuting the death sentences of every single one of the 548 convicted murderers on California's death row, leaving them sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Back in 2016, California voters overwhelmingly opposed a ballot initiative that would have abolished the death penalty in the state, and approved a separate ballot initiative that would speed up the process. A campaigning Newsom said he would respect the voters' wishes despite his personal opposition to the death penalty, then promptly declared a moratorium once he was in office.
The murderers he's allowing to continue to draw breath, to enjoy the little things in life, especially the new country club-type quarters he and the First Partner have transformed the former death row and execution chambers at San Quentin into, are truly the worst of the worst.
In some kind of weird irony, in February of this year Newsom held a ribbon cutting at The Learning Center at San Quentin.
Here are a few of the monsters who'll get to enjoy the Scandinavian-inspired rehabilitation center.
David Westerfield, who killed Danielle van Dam in 2002.
I have been waiting 24 years for my neighbor David Westerfield to be executed for the kidnapping and murder of my 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam. And now thanks to @GavinNewsom, it looks like it will never happen. I was 13 when he abducted her from her bedroom in the middle of the night in 2002. I would never equate what I experienced with what her family suffered, but Danielle's murder devastated our whole neighborhood, and me personally. I was a sensitive kid and it was a major contributor to my mental health decline in adolescence. In the 20 days between her disappearance and his arrest, I developed insomnia and spent those nights walking around the house checking the locks on the doors and windows. I followed the trial closely. As we learned the horrific details, I couldn't stop thinking about what she endured during the 3 days he had her. Her body was found dumped off the side of a road 25 days after she went missing. It was too decomposed to test for sexual assault, but we all knew that's why he took her. He was also convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material found on his computer. There was never any doubt about Westerfield's guilt. There was an abundance of forensic evidence, including her blood on his clothing and in his motorhome. In 2019, the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld his conviction and death sentence. Shortly afterward, Newsom imposed his moratorium. And now he does THIS. California voters rejected abolishing the death penalty in both 2012 and 2016, and even voted to expedite executions. All these years, I've held on to the hope that someone would eventually take office who respected the will of California voters and would allow these sentences to be carried out. It's especially insulting to hear Newsom go on about morality, as if he is morally superior to those of us whose lives were affected by these heinous crimes and who want to see the perpetrators brought to justice. I'm hoping the California Supreme Court can stop Westerfield's commutation.
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) November 5, 2026
Christina Buttons, now an investigative reporter with the Manhattan Institute, was a neighbor of both the victim and the murderer in that case; she was only 13 when her 7-year-old neighbor was abducted and murdered:
As we learned the horrific details, I couldn't stop thinking about what she endured during the 3 days he had her. Her body was found dumped off the side of a road 25 days after she went missing. It was too decomposed to test for sexual assault, but we all knew that's why he took her. He was also convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material found on his computer. There was never any doubt about Westerfield's guilt. There was an abundance of forensic evidence, including her blood on his clothing and in his motorhome. In 2019, the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld his conviction and death sentence.
Then we have Isauro Aguirre, one of the two people responsible for the torture and murder of Gabriel Fernandez. Aguirre tortured and beat 8-year-old Gabriel, his girlfriend's child, for eight months, until Gabriel's body couldn't take any more. Gabriel suffered numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, 12 broken ribs, and burns, prosecutors said. The boy also had been forced to eat cat feces and slept bound and gagged inside a small cabinet.
https://t.co/AMuavDz0lV
— jonathanhatami (@jonathanhatami) November 5, 2026
I was struck by the words of Jonathan Hatami, the Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney who prosecuted Gabriel's killers, in his closing argument in Aguirre's case. Hatami shared them again Thursday night, on what was undoubtedly an agonizing evening:
“Gabriel was in agony for almost 240 days. He was humiliated, intimidated, shamed, bullied, scared, abused, and tortured by the defendant. He was made to feel like nothing, nobody. He was made to blame himself and feel ashamed. He was carried by the defendant, after he was beaten to death, like trash. Just discarded by the defendant. Death was likely a merciful end to Gabriel’s pain – and that only illuminates the torture and abuse that he really suffered. When he needed it most, no one was there to hold Gabriel, to love him, to caress him, and to just tell him ‘everything will be alright.’
"Gabriel will not be forgotten. You heard that from all the witnesses. His death will not be in vain. You, the jury, have seen the journey of torture and abuse Gabriel went through. We ask that you hold the defendant accountable. The ultimate punishment is truly appropriate for the defendant, even though it does not even compare to what the defendant did to Gabriel.
"The defendant is not a victim. No one who does this to a child can ever be called a victim. No one who does this to a child can have good inside of him. He is a 37-year-old grown man. He has absolutely no excuses. He did it. He got off on it. He is responsible. Pure evil. No one who embraces inflicting pain upon an innocent little boy should ever be allowed to portray himself as a victim. You now know what a victim is. A victim is someone who has his teeth knocked out, his liver lacerated, his skull fractured, his penis bruised and burned, his ribs broken, and his entire body bruised and battered. A victim is a child who was muffled and stuffed in a box. Who was forced to eat cat litter and cat feces. Who was forced to eat his own vomit. Gabriel is truly an example of courage. The defendant, on the other hand, is a true example of an evil coward. A bully. We ask that you hold him accountable.”
Yet, Gavin Newsom believes this monster deserves to have a taxpayer-funded life for however many years he has left.
Richard Allen Davis, the man who killed Polly Klaas.
Richard Allen Davis grinned ear to ear as the jury gave him the death penalty for kidnapping, raping, and killing 12yo Polly Klaas just weeks after getting out of prison. Then he turned around, made eye contact with Polly’s father Marc Klaas, laughed, and flipped him off.
— 💥Susan Dyer Reynolds🗞️ (@SusanDReynolds) November 6, 2026
I can't even go on with more examples.
Newsom claims his Catholic faith informs his beliefs on the death penalty. But he doesn't get to choose to elevate his personal faith above the law and above what voters said. His actions are the ultimate election denial.
In addition, if his views on the death penalty are allegedly based on his Catholic faith, he hasn't seemed to wrestle with other life-and-death issues on which Catholic teachings are absolutely clear: abortion and euthanasia. He's been a huge supporter of abortion, and of giving women the ability to have as many abortions as late in pregnancy as they desire. And, in his memoir released earlier this year, he described giving his mother, who was in the final stages of her breast cancer battle, the painkillers needed to calm her before the "courageous doctor" arrived to perform the then-illegal "Medical Assistance in Dying" euthanasia.
Quite a convenient set of convictions.
(I'm not denying that it was a traumatic experience for Newsom, who, by all accounts, was very close with his mother; I watched my own father die a painful death from cancer in 2017, and I would have supported my dad in his decision if he'd have had the opportunity to choose euthanasia. But I wouldn't then turn around and cite my faith in commuting the death sentence of murderers.)
One justice advocate in the Golden State penned this open letter to Newsom, which deserves reprinting in its entirety.
An Open Letter to @GavinNewsom,
Your decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 individuals currently on California’s death row raises profound questions about executive authority, accountability, and whose interests our justice system is really meant to serve.
These were not 548 arbitrary sentences. They were imposed through a judicial process involving trials, evidence, juries, and judicial review. Many involved extraordinarily brutal crimes and victims whose lives were taken under horrific circumstances. Circumstances that the benefits of state police and guarded communities shield you from.
I want to know how you weighed the interests of those victims and their families in making a decision of this magnitude. What consideration was given to the families who have spent years, sometimes decades, waiting for justice? What meaningful role did they have in this decision?
Equally troubling is the appearance that this decision is less about the individual circumstances of these cases and more about advancing your own political agenda. The timing of which has not gone unnoticed. It is difficult to ignore the political implications of making such a sweeping announcement, particularly when your national political ambitions have been the subject of considerable public discussion. This action creates the impression that California’s justice system and the lives of crime victims’ families have become collateral to your political positioning.
California’s justice system should NOT be a vehicle for a governor to build a political legacy, boost his popularity with the DSA movement, or burnish his national reputation. These are matters of life, death, justice, and accountability. They deserve considerably more seriousness than a sweeping political announcement.
You have the constitutional authority to exercise clemency. But having the authority to make a decision does not eliminate the obligation to explain it, particularly when that decision affects hundreds of cases and so many people beyond the individuals receiving clemency. No. What you have done is indicative of the king-complex you have so rabidly spoken against.
You have described this as a matter of California’s values. But California’s values are NOT yours alone to define. The public has a legitimate interest in HOW the death penalty is administered, HOW the will of voters is respected, and HOW the rights and interests of crime victims are considered.
Victims’ families and voters alike deserve a substantive explanation of the standards applied, the consideration given to individual circumstances, and the justification for treating 548 entirely different cases with one sweeping executive action. (Though your sweeping decision may never reach the 166 that will require judicial review.)
The families of murder victims deserve more than a canned acknowledgment that this decision may be painful for them. They deserve to know that their loved ones, their suffering, and the pursuit of justice were given serious consideration
Executive clemency is a tremendous responsibility, not a political prop. The governor’s office is not a personal platform for advancing national ambitions, and the victims of violent crime should never become an afterthought in the pursuit of a political legacy.
California deserved leadership that is capable of recognizing the difference.
Instead, we got leadership that believes these monsters just need a Learing Center.
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