SANTA ANA, Calif. – Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Thursday blasted Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates on California’s death row, calling the move a betrayal of crime victims and an affront to the juries that imposed those sentences.
In a statement released Thursday, Spitzer described the governor’s action as “mercy for the wolves” while inflicting “the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep,” framing the debate as one between protecting offenders and delivering justice for victims and their families.
The commutation represents one of the most significant changes to California’s capital punishment system in decades. While California has largely suspended executions in practice for years, hundreds of inmates convicted of some of the state’s most notorious murders had remained under death sentences imposed by juries and upheld through extensive appeals.
Spitzer argued that the governor’s decision effectively nullifies verdicts reached by hundreds of juries throughout California.
“The decision to impose death is not one made by an elected District Attorney, an elected judge or an elected governor,” Spitzer said. “It is the only sentence that is handed down by a jury of 12 who have listened to all of the evidence and decided that imposition of death is what is just.”
The Orange County district attorney, whose office has historically been among the state’s most active users of the death penalty, vowed to continue seeking capital punishment in cases he believes warrant the ultimate sanction, despite Newsom’s opposition to executions.
Spitzer also tied the decision to broader criminal justice reforms enacted in California over the past several years. He contended that recent parole policy changes and efforts to reduce prison populations have weakened accountability for serious offenders and created uncertainty for victims’ families who believed offenders would spend the remainder of their lives behind bars.
Among the concerns cited by Spitzer:
- Victims’ families may feel that promises made during criminal prosecutions are being undone.
- Jury verdicts imposing death sentences have effectively been overridden by executive action.
- The governor’s action could become another step toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in California.
- Families of homicide victims may now face renewed uncertainty regarding the future custody status of offenders.
Supporters of Newsom’s action, however, have long argued that California’s death penalty system has proven costly, inconsistent, and vulnerable to wrongful convictions. Death penalty opponents contend that life imprisonment without parole provides public safety while avoiding the risk of executing an innocent person.
The issue remains politically divisive in California. State voters have repeatedly rejected ballot measures that would have abolished the death penalty outright, while also approving measures intended to reform and speed up appeals in capital cases. At the same time, Newsom has consistently opposed capital punishment and previously imposed a moratorium on executions during his administration.
California’s death penalty debate stands in sharp contrast to several other Western states.
Among western states:
- Arizona continues to authorize and carry out executions, although the state has periodically paused executions amid legal and procedural reviews.
- Idaho retains the death penalty and has actively pursued executions of condemned inmates.
- Nevada maintains capital punishment under state law, though executions have become relatively rare.
- Utah not only retains the death penalty but also permits firing squads under certain circumstances if lethal injection drugs are unavailable.
- Texas, while not traditionally considered a Western state in the same regional grouping as California, remains the nation’s most active death penalty state and continues to carry out executions regularly.
- Oregon has largely halted executions and significantly reduced the use of capital punishment through executive actions and legislative reforms.
- Washington abolished its death penalty after the state supreme court found it was being applied in an arbitrary and racially disproportionate manner.
- Colorado repealed the death penalty in 2020 and commuted the sentences of the state’s remaining death row inmates.
For Orange County, the controversy is likely to reignite a long-running debate over public safety, victims’ rights, criminal punishment, and the role of executive power in California’s justice system.
What is certain is that Newsom’s action has drawn a fierce response from one of California’s most outspoken prosecutors. As the legal and political fallout unfolds, the divide between Sacramento’s criminal justice policies and many local law enforcement leaders appears as wide as ever.