Rally to Urge Governor Newsom to Commute Death Sentences; June 26th

Clemency California invites all clemency advocates to the capital in Sacramento on Thursday, June 26th to help call on California Governor Gavin Newsom to commute all California death sentences. Plan to meet at the west steps of the capital building to join civil rights leaders for a rally that begins at 10am PT, followed by a 1030am PT press conference.

Governor Newsom knows California’s death penalty process is inhumane, dysfunctional, racially biased, and error-prone. He should use his executive authority to confront the systemic failures of this outdated policy and take steps to grant clemency in all death-sentenced cases. This isn’t about individual cases, it is about a system that is unjust, ineffective, and unfixable. 

Facts about California's death row:

• There are 574 individuals on California’s death row. It is the biggest death row in the nation and one of the largest death rows in the world. Two-thirds of the individuals have been there for more than 20 years, and dozens of individuals have been on death row for more than 40 years with literally decades of delays caused by California’s inability to provide lawyers to handle capital appeals.

• The death penalty reflects a legacy of racial discrimination. Sixty-nine percent of the people under a sentence of death are people of color, and one-third are Black. Death sentences are more likely to be imposed when the victims are white than when they are Black or Latino, while the majority of homicides with Black or Latino victims go unsolved.

• Almost half of the people on death row are there for crimes they committed as youth under the age of 26, and approximately one in six were under 21 years old. Recognizing that young people’s brains are not fully developed until their mid 20s, California has enacted several reforms to address the diminished culpability of youthful offenders. However, individuals on death row and those serving life without parole are excluded from these policies.

• More than one third of people on death row in California have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

• A study by the National Academy of Sciences estimates that at least four percent of people sentenced to death in the U.S. are innocent. California has already released seven men from death row due to wrongful convictions.

Clemency California is a campaign supported by the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition, a diverse coalition of faith, racial justice, civic, legal, and labor organizations, as well as murder victims’ family members and families affected by the death penalty. The coalition seeks feasible and humane alternatives to incarceration and support all justice-impacted persons and communities in their healing and recovery, and values practical solutions that promote racial justice and equal prosperity and that shift funding from punitive strategies to strengthening marginalized communities.