Newsom’s Death-Row Commutations Put Criminal Justice and Victims’ Rights on a Collision Course

Newsom’s Death-Row Commutations Put Criminal Justice and Victims’ Rights on a Collision Course
California has replaced every death sentence on its death row with life without parole, turning Gov. Gavin Newsom’s long-standing opposition to capital punishment into one sweeping act of clemency—and a fresh confrontation with victims’ families.

Newsom’s decision affects 548 inmates, described as the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. The conservative account presents the move as a late-term action by an outgoing governor, noting that Newsom acted before Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra takes office.

The governor’s supporters would likely characterize the commutations as consistent with his 2019 moratorium on executions and his argument that the death penalty is incompatible with California’s values. But the most forceful opposition comes from relatives of murder victims, who see the policy not as reform but as a withdrawal of justice.

Phyllis Loya, whose son, Pittsburg police Officer Larry Lasater, was killed in 2005, accused Newsom of putting political ambition ahead of victims. “He wants to be president,” she said, adding that the governor does not talk about victims and that the decision had retraumatized her. She called the commutation of her son’s killer’s sentence “the worst day of my life.”

The dispute also exposes a conflict between democratic and executive authority. Critics point to California voters’ rejection of death-penalty repeal measures in 2012 and 2016, including a vote to speed executions. Newsom, however, has used his clemency power to reject the premise that a punishment can remain morally acceptable simply because it is legal.

That divide is unlikely to end with the commutations. For Newsom, the action reinforces a broader abolitionist position; for victims’ families and death-penalty supporters, it confirms that the governor has overridden both their pain and, they argue, the electorate’s will.