Catholic group praises California for ‘largest commutation in history’ as hundreds spared execution

The prominent anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Nov. 5 for his commutation of the death sentences of every prisoner on the state’s death row.

In a publicly released letter , Newsom said he had “decided to exercise [his] constitutional clemency authority to commute all California death sentences to life without the possibility of parole.”

The Democratic governor, who identifies as Catholic, said in the letter that he had come to “firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,” that it “undermines the foundations of our legal system,” and that it “diminishes each of us.”

The governor described life in prison without parole as “the most severe punishment I can lawfully impose.” The convicted criminals “will die in prison but not by our hand,” he said.

The commutation covered all 548 prisoners condemned to death in the state. Newsom’s executive order in 2019 ensured executions would not occur while he remained governor.

Responding to the news on Nov. 5, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the decision “an incredibly…