Twenty Years Since Last Execution: California Remains Under Execution Moratorium as Advocates Push for Mass Clemency Grant

On January 17, 2006, California exe­cut­ed Clarence Ray Allen — the last per­son put to death by the state. Two decades lat­er, California’s death row pop­u­la­tion has fall­en to 580 pris­on­ers, down from its peak near 750 in the mid-2010s. In the time since Mr. Allen’s exe­cu­tion, the death penal­ty in California has seen sus­tained scruti­ny as con­cerns with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, inno­cence, and costs con­tin­ue to grow. Governor Gavin Newsom has placed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers have been moved to less restric­tive con­di­tions in gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion, and advo­cates have urged the gov­er­nor to grant mass clemency.

In 2012, vot­ers con­sid­ered Proposition 34, which would have repealed the death penal­ty and replaced it with a max­i­mum sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole. The mea­sure would have result­ed in annu­al sav­ings esti­mat­ed near $100 mil­lion in the first few years, with the expec­ta­tion that sav­ings would then grow annu­al­ly. The propo­si­tion failed, receiv­ing sup­port from 48% of vot­ers. Four years lat­er, a near­ly iden­ti­cal mea­sure, Proposition 62 was on the bal­lot. In response, death penal­ty pro­po­nents pre­sent­ed an alter­na­tive, Proposition 66, which sought to retain the death penal­ty and expe­dite state cap­i­tal appeals by chang­ing the way in which appeals are processed. Proposition 62 failed, but received 46% sup­port from vot­ers, while Proposition 66 passed with 51% sup­port from vot­ers. Proposition 66 was upheld but lat­er cur­tailed by a 2017 California Supreme Court deci­sion.

Shortly after assum­ing office in 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an exec­u­tive order and announced a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state, and said that the ​“death penal­ty sys­tem has been, by all mea­sures, a fail­ure.” He explained that the death penal­ty ​“has dis­crim­i­nat­ed against defen­dants who are men­tal­ly ill, Black and brown, or can’t afford expen­sive legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion… [while pro­vid­ing] no pub­lic safe­ty ben­e­fit or val­ue as a deter­rent.” In 2022, Gov. Newsom signed California’s Racial Justice Act, which pro­vides a legal process for death-row pris­on­ers to secure relief from con­vic­tions and death sen­tences if they are obtained ​“on the basis of race, eth­nic­i­ty, or nation­al ori­gin,” and addi­tion­al leg­is­la­tion that removed those who are per­ma­nent­ly men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent from death row. Before sign­ing both pieces of leg­is­la­tion, Gov. Newsom announced a plan in which the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) would trans­fer all men on death row in San Quentin State Prison to oth­er max­i­mum secu­ri­ty state pris­ons, and would repur­pose the for­mer death row facil­i­ty ​“into some­thing inno­v­a­tive and anchored in reha­bil­i­ta­tion,” accord­ing to CDCR spokesper­son Vicky Waters. Data from CDCR indi­cates that as of May 28, 2024, all those for­mer­ly housed on San Quentin’s death row have been moved to pris­ons with gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion in oth­er state facilities.

As Gov. Newsom has vocal­ly expressed his dis­ap­proval of the death penal­ty, civ­il rights groups and advo­cates have called on him to exer­cise his exec­u­tive author­i­ty to grant clemen­cy and com­mute all death sen­tences in California. Speakers at a June 2025 gath­er­ing called the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and not­ed per­sis­tent evi­dence of racial bias, his­toric ties to lynch­ing, inef­fec­tive pro­tec­tion of inno­cent lives, and high costs. The state, which main­tains the nation’s largest death row pop­u­la­tion, has seen sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges to its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem based on alle­ga­tions of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and struc­tur­al inequities in pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al prac­tices. These chal­lenges include a mass clemen­cy cam­paign, indi­vid­u­al­ized claims under the state’s Racial Justice Act, and an equal pro­tec­tion chal­lenge under the California Constitution.

Clemency advo­ca­cy has inten­si­fied in recent months, with both grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions and cor­po­rate enti­ties mobi­liz­ing pub­lic pres­sure. In January 2026, Lush Cosmetics launched a statewide cam­paign across its 35 California loca­tions, part­ner­ing with the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, and Clemency California. The cam­paign urges Gov. Newsom to com­mute all death sen­tences to life with­out parole before a future admin­is­tra­tion could reverse his exe­cu­tion mora­to­ri­um. ​“Governor Newsom has spo­ken clear­ly about the fail­ures of the death penal­ty and his goal of end­ing it in California. He now has a his­toric oppor­tu­ni­ty to act on those con­vic­tions, com­mute every death sen­tence, and ensure that the progress already made can­not be undone. This moment calls for lead­er­ship root­ed in human dig­ni­ty and fair­ness,” said Carrie Harambasic, head of busi­ness devel­op­ment at Lush North America.

Lush’s cam­paign builds on cor­po­rate oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from busi­ness lead­ers includ­ing Richard Branson and Matthew Stepka, mem­bers of the glob­al Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty. Maha Jweied, CEO of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice said, “[b]usiness lead­ers under­stand that the death penal­ty is not only inhu­mane and inef­fec­tive, but a mas­sive waste of pub­lic resources. We urge Governor Newsom to act now — the state’s com­mu­ni­ties and busi­ness­es will be stronger for it.” Lush con­duct­ed a pro­jec­tion action at the California State Capitol on January 12, 2026, and is using its retail pres­ence to edu­cate cus­tomers on sup­port­ing clemency efforts.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Hayley Bedard, January 15, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde