SACRAMENTO, CA — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has commuted the sentences of all 548 state death row prisoners to life without parole, setting off an immediate backlash from some victims’ families and praise from death penalty opponents. The move includes Richard Allen Davis, the man convicted of abducting and killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas after taking her from a sleepover in 1993.
For Marc Klaas, the decision reopened a wound that never fully closed. He said hearing that Davis’ death sentence would be erased felt like a personal blow after decades of believing the punishment fit the crime. Newsom said he acted after years of weighing the issue and because he believes state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.
Marc Klaas says the commutation undoes a verdict he believed was earned
Marc Klaas has spent years arguing that the jury and judge who sentenced Davis to death reflected the horror of Polly’s killing. He said the courtroom moment in 1996, when Davis learned his fate, convinced him that the justice system had recognized the suffering Davis caused. Newsom’s action, he said, destroyed that sense of accountability.
Klaas said he was in court Thursday supporting another child-kidnapping victim’s family when he learned of the announcement. He described the timing as especially painful because he was not warned in advance. In his view, the decision reaches beyond one case and calls into question whether California can be trusted to keep its promises to victims and their families.
He also pointed to the amount of work juries and judges put into these capital cases. Klaas said hundreds of juries considered the evidence and that each resulting death sentence was handed down after long deliberation. To him, the governor’s unilateral decision overrode that process.
Newsom says the clemency decision reflects California values and legal concerns
In an open letter, Newsom wrote that the action came after nearly three decades of openly opposing executions as an elected official. He said he understands the pain the move will cause, but argued that killing is incompatible with California’s values and undermines the legal system.
The governor acknowledged that the announcement could bring back traumatic memories for victims’ families. He described it as one of the most difficult choices of his career. The decision arrives just two months before he is scheduled to leave office, adding to the political and emotional weight surrounding the move.
Newsom’s office has spent years preparing for the possibility. The governor met with victims’ families, law enforcement officials and his legal team before acting. Even so, the announcement was sweeping and immediate, leaving opponents to say the state sidestepped the kind of case-by-case review they wanted.
California courts and critics may still fight parts of the move
The commutation is not necessarily finished. California’s Supreme Court must approve clemency decisions in 382 cases involving prisoners convicted of multiple felonies. That creates one more legal step before the full effect of the governor’s action is settled.
Opposition groups have already said they plan to challenge the move in court. Critics include the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, Crime Survivors and the California District Attorneys Association, which argue that the governor’s action deepens victims’ pain and overrides both the court system and public opinion.
Klaas also said the decision has shaken his confidence in the justice system itself. He recalled being told after Davis’ conviction that he could trust California’s criminal courts. Now, he says, the system feels vulnerable to reversal whenever a governor chooses to act.
Polly Klaas’ family is split, with some relatives now supporting abolition
Not all of Polly Klaas’ relatives oppose the move. Her half-sister, Annie Nichol, and stepsister, Jess Nichol, said they met with Newsom last month and told him they support ending the death penalty. They described the governor as attentive and deeply affected by what they shared.
The sisters said their view has changed over time. They once supported capital punishment, but now believe the state should invest more in mental health treatment, drug addiction care and other forms of rehabilitation. They also said victims deserve concrete support rather than a promise that an execution will somehow provide closure.
The family’s changing stance reflects a broader divide among victims’ relatives. Some see the commutation as a betrayal, while others view it as a recognition that grief should not drive public policy. Annie Nichol said survivors need real, tangible care, not more punishment carried out in their names.
Other victims’ families cite murder cases that shaped their anger
Several families say Newsom’s decision erased hard-won accountability in some of the state’s most notorious killings. Their objections include cases involving serial killer Randy Kraft, known as the “Southern California Strangler,” and Charles Ng, who was convicted of killing 11 people in California in the 1980s.
Family members also pointed to the deaths of 8-year-old Michael Lyons in Yuba City and Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver. Lyons’ sister, Syntara Fuller, told KCRA that the governor grouped together some of the state’s worst offenders without reviewing each case on its own. Oliver’s former sergeant, Chris Guerrero, said he still struggles with the fact that Oliver’s killer remains alive.
For these families, the issue is not abstract policy. It is personal loss, repeated court hearings and the feeling that a sentence they believed had been final has now been removed. That is why the commutation landed, for many of them, as another injury rather than a step toward justice.
Supporters call the commutation a historic rebuke of capital punishment
Supporters of the governor’s move said it marks an important shift away from a system they view as cruel, expensive and ineffective. Paul Wilson, whose wife Christy was among eight people killed in the 2011 Seal Beach salon shooting, said he once wanted only the death penalty. After years of watching the toll on families, he changed his mind and backed clemency efforts.
Newsom’s decision also drew praise from former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who once sought death sentences in some of the affected cases but now calls the death penalty a failed policy. Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, called it a historic act and urged other state leaders to follow the same path.
With the commutations now set against legal challenges and fierce grief from many victims’ families, California is entering another long debate over whether capital punishment has any place in the state at all. For both supporters and opponents, the governor’s move has become a defining test of justice, accountability and mercy.