California’s district attorneys are vowing to keep seeking the death penalty in new cases, and some are looking for a way to block Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation of all 548 death sentences in the state before it takes effect. As we reported, Newsom announced Thursday that he would commute every death sentence in California to life without parole, writing in a letter that “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.”
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer went first. Newsom’s commutations are “mercy for the wolves,” he said in a statement Thursday, before making the vow: “I, as the elected District Attorney of Orange County, have, and will, continue to pursue the death penalty.”
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer Issues Statement on Governor Newsom’s Commutation of All Death Sentences in California
Click here for full release: https://t.co/x65hY8Hlvx
SANTA ANA, Calif. – Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer issued the following… pic.twitter.com/xWsH1Y8eby
— OCDA Todd Spitzer (@OCDAToddSpitzer) November 5, 2026
Newsom’s own letter leaves them that opening. The commutations do not repeal the death penalty, so prosecutors can still seek it in new cases, as the Mercury News noted. San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe, whose office is seeking death against the man accused of killing seven farmworkers at a Half Moon Bay mushroom farm in 2023, told the paper he was “disgusted.” “It is contrary to two separate votes of the people of California,” he said. “What he’s done today is specifically undemocratic and serves his own personal philosophy.”
The bigger question is whether the commutations survive at all. The state constitution bars a governor from commuting the sentence of anyone convicted of more than one felony without the California Supreme Court’s approval, which covers 382 of the 548 cases, and the governor’s office says none of the commutations take effect until those legal steps are done. That is where prosecutors are looking. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said her office is “researching any lawful remedies” for victims’ families, who she said were “deprived of any input.”
San Diego County District Attorney @SummerStephan issued the following statement on Governor Gavin Newsom’s commutation of all death sentences in California: pic.twitter.com/cAW314gNmZ
— SD District Attorney (@SDDistAtty) November 6, 2026
Victims’ rights are the likeliest line of attack. San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said Newsom ignored Marsy’s Law, the victims’ rights guarantees in the state constitution: “I am not aware of any victims’ family members receiving notice of these commutations from the Governor.” He singled out Kevin Cooper, convicted of murdering Josh Ryen’s family and his friend Chris Hughes and leaving Ryen for dead. Cooper maintains his innocence, and Newsom ordered an independent investigation of his case. “Josh has never received a call from Gavin Newsom,” Anderson said, calling the commutations “arrogant and political showmanship.”
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho made the voters’ case. A blanket commutation stands “in direct conflict with the will of California voters,” he said. Californians have twice rejected abolishing the death penalty and in 2016 reaffirmed it through Proposition 66, the measure meant to speed up executions, Ho noted. It also ignores “the voices of victims who have waited decades for justice,” Ho said.
A statement from Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho. pic.twitter.com/NuspYtYFci
— Sacramento County DA (@SacCountyDA) November 6, 2026
Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter Polly was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and murdered in 1993 by Richard Allen Davis, fears the commutations are a first step. “We’re all looking at the prospect of potentially them getting out someday, because they’re one step closer now,” he told the Mercury News. Spitzer made the same argument, pointing to state parole regulations that took effect Oct. 1 and, he said, make thousands of inmates serving life without parole eligible for parole. The governor’s office says the commutations release no one and make no one eligible for parole, and that the commuted prisoners are excluded from the parole board’s new commutation and resentencing rules.
Not every prosecutor objects. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen called the commutations “the right thing to do,” and Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton said they would “save California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.” The state has also set aside $239 million to turn San Quentin, home of the old death row, into a rehab center, as we reported.
Newsom leaves office in January and is weighing a 2028 presidential run. California has not executed anyone since 2006, and his successor, Xavier Becerra, has said he will extend the moratorium on executions Newsom imposed in 2019.
