Commutation of California Death Sentences

The Governor's announcement regarding his decision to commute all death sentences can be found here.

548. The HCRC updates its list of persons subject to a death judgment here.

CDCR's public website reflects a slightly higher number of people under a death sentence than the HCRC's own data reflect. This discrepancy is accounted for by two factors: (1) CDCR does not re-classify a person whose death sentence has been reversed by a court as anything other than "condemned" until the person has been resentenced after a retrial or plea; and (2) there is typically a lag between the date a person has been resentenced in court and the time CDCR receives and processes that information.

548. The Governor has not yet formally commuted any sentences; he has indicated he is planning to do so. Once the Governor formally commutes sentences, this number will change.

The Governor laid out the next steps in his announcement, linked above. For those who do not have a separate felony conviction (approximately 30% of people currently under a death sentence), the Governor can unilaterally commute their sentence. The remaining people – those with a separate felony conviction – are subject to a provision of the California Constitution that establishes as a prerequisite to commutation a recommendation from 4 justices of the California Supreme Court. (See Cal. Const., art. V., § 8.) The Governor has indicated he will send a list of those people under a death sentence with a separate felony conviction to the California Supreme Court for their recommendation for commutation. The Supreme Court has explained that its role is limited to “provid[ing] a check on potential abuses of the power conferred on the executive.” If the Court makes the required recommendation, the Governor would then have to issue commutation certificates to effectuate the commutations.