WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - California Governor Gavin Newsom has commuted all the death sentences in the state.
In an open letter to justices of the state supreme court Thursday, Newsom ordered that the conviction of 548 inmates on death row will be changed to life imprisonment, marking the largest mass clemency in U.S. history.
Many of the prisoners on death row in the state have more than one felony conviction, and those cases reportedly require approval of the state Supreme Court to resentence to life.
'I respectfully request that the Court issue its recommendation by the end of this year so that I may act before the end of my term,' said Newsom, who is scheduled to leave his office in January.
Newsom said he took this action, which is 'among the most difficult' of his career, because he firmly believe that 'state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us.'
California has not executed a death row inmate for the past two decades.
Twenty-three American states have banned capital punishment, for which public support is declining over the decades.
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