CALIFORNIA — Twenty years after the state carried out its last execution, California remains under an execution moratorium as advocates intensify calls for Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant clemency to everyone sentenced to death, according to a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center.
In its article, “Twenty Years Since Last Execution: California Remains Under Execution Moratorium as Advocates Push for Mass Clemency Grant,” the Death Penalty Information Center reports that California has not executed anyone since January 17, 2006, when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death. The organization emphasizes that the state’s death penalty remains effectively suspended, even as pressure mounts on Newsom to commute all remaining death sentences.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, California’s death row population has declined to 580 people, down from a high of nearly 750 people in the mid-2010s.
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that in the years following Allen’s execution, California’s death penalty system has faced sustained scrutiny, with growing concerns about racial discrimination, claims of innocence and the high financial costs of capital punishment.
The organization notes that Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions that moved people sentenced to death out of the most restrictive housing and into general population settings. At the same time, advocates have continued to urge the governor to use his executive authority to grant mass clemency and commute all death sentences, the Death Penalty Information Center reports.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, California voters have repeatedly considered ballot measures to repeal the death penalty. In 2012, voters considered Proposition 34, which would have eliminated capital punishment and replaced it with a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Death Penalty Information Center says the measure was expected to generate nearly $100 million a year in savings in its early years, with projected increases over time. Proposition 34 ultimately failed, despite receiving support from 48% of voters.
The Death Penalty Information Center states that four years later, voters considered Proposition 62, a similar proposal to repeal the death penalty. Supporters of capital punishment advanced Proposition 66, which sought to retain the death penalty while accelerating the appeals process by changing how capital cases are reviewed. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Proposition 62 failed with 46% voter support, while Proposition 66 passed with 51%, although Proposition 66 was later curtailed by a 2017 decision by the California Supreme Court.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Newsom signed an executive order announcing a moratorium on executions shortly after taking office in 2019. Newsom said the “death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.” He added 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.”
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that Newsom signed California’s Racial Justice Act in 2022, allowing people on death row to seek relief from convictions or death sentences obtained “on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.” That same year, Newsom also approved legislation removing people who are permanently mentally incompetent from death row. Before signing both measures, Newsom announced a plan for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to transfer all men previously housed on death row at San Quentin State Prison to other maximum-security prisons across the state, the Death Penalty Information Center emphasizes.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center and a corrections department spokesperson, Vicky Waters, the former death row unit at San Quentin would be repurposed “into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation.” The organization reports that data from the department shows that everyone previously housed on San Quentin’s death row had been transferred to other state prisons and placed in the general population as of May 28, 2024.
As the Death Penalty Information Center reports, civil rights groups and advocates continue to call on Newsom to grant mass clemency, citing his opposition to the death penalty. At a June 2025 gathering, speakers described California’s death penalty system as unconstitutional and pointed to ongoing evidence of racial bias, historical links to lynching, inadequate protections for innocent people and the high costs of maintaining capital punishment.
The Death Penalty Information Center notes that California still has the largest death row population in the nation and continues to face major legal challenges to its capital punishment system. These include a coordinated mass clemency campaign, individual claims brought under the Racial Justice Act and an equal protection challenge under the California Constitution.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, clemency advocacy has intensified in recent months as grassroots groups and corporations increase public pressure on the governor. In January 2026, Lush Cosmetics partnered with the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice and Clemency California to launch a statewide campaign across its 35 California stores. The campaign urges Newsom to commute all death sentences to life without the possibility of parole before a future administration could reverse the current execution moratorium, the organization reports.
“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.
As reported by the Death Penalty Information Center, Lush’s campaign builds on broader corporate opposition to capital punishment, including efforts by business leaders such as Richard Branson and Matthew Stepka, members of Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty. Maha Jweied, CEO of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, said, “Business 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.”
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that Lush staged a projection action at the California State Capitol on Jan. 12, 2026, and continues to use its retail locations to educate customers about clemency efforts as California approaches two decades without an execution.
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