California prosecutors vowed to keep seeking the death penalty in new cases, defying Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to commute all 548 death sentences to life without parole.

Key Points

  • California prosecutors say they will keep seeking the death penalty in new cases, even after Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted all 548 death sentences.
  • Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin called the commutations “an abuse of power” and said his office has 20 capital cases pending.
  • The first new death sentence could go to Saul Arevalo, convicted of a triple murder in Riverside County, whose jury has already voted for death.
  • More than two-thirds of the commutations — 382 of 548 — need approval from the California Supreme Court, and unapproved cases would expire when Newsom leaves office in January.
  • About 70 capital cases are still moving through California courts, and the death penalty remains legal in the state.

What happened

A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was commuting every death sentence in California, prosecutors across the state answered with a message of their own: they will keep asking juries for the death penalty.

Newsom’s announcement on Thursday covered all 548 people on the state’s death row, changing their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. commuting every death sentence in California By Friday, district attorneys in several counties were saying the governor’s order would not change how they handle new murder cases.

The loudest voice belonged to Michael Hestrin, the district attorney of Riverside County. “I’m going to continue to seek it when appropriate,” Hestrin said, calling the mass commutations “an abuse of power.”

Riverside has sent more prisoners to death row than any other county in California in recent years, and Hestrin said his office currently has 20 cases in which it is seeking the death penalty. He named the defendant he expects to be first: Saul Arevalo, recently convicted of a triple murder in Riverside County, whose jury has already voted for a death sentence. A judge must still sign off on that decision.

Hestrin was not the only prosecutor pushing back. Several district attorneys said on Friday they were weighing a court challenge to the commutations, even while admitting it would be a long shot, given the governor’s broad constitutional power to grant clemency. Cynthia Zimmer, the district attorney of Kern County, said prosecutors were already talking through their options. “We are meeting,” she said. “We are Zooming. We are examining all of our legal options.”

Victims’ families were part of the response too. Zimmer said teams from county prosecutors’ offices were telephoning the families of people murdered by the inmates on Newsom’s list. “We are doing our best efforts to call them today, to let them know we are fighting to keep this in place,” she said.

Why the California death penalty fight matters

The dispute leaves California in a strange position: a death row emptied by the governor, yet set to fill up again. The death penalty remains on California’s statute books. Voters have twice refused to abolish it, in 2012 and again in 2016, and in 2016 they also approved a measure to speed up executions. While the law stands, prosecutors can keep seeking death sentences — and juries can keep returning them.

The case numbers show how fast the row could grow back. Beyond Arevalo’s case in Riverside, three cases in San Bernardino County have juries that recently voted for death, with judges yet to give the final word. About 70 capital cases are moving through the courts across the state. In Kern County, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in 13 open cases, nine of them involving murders committed inside prisons. “If we don’t pursue the death penalty for them, they can get as many free murders as they wish,” Zimmer said — the men accused are already serving life without parole.

Even the commutations themselves are not final. Under the California Constitution, 382 of the 548 prisoners have more than one felony conviction, so their commutations need a recommendation from the state Supreme Court before they can take effect. Newsom has asked the justices to act before the end of the year. If the court has not approved them by the time he leaves office in January, those commutations would expire, and the death sentences would stand.

That deadline gives a prosecutors’ legal challenge something concrete to aim at. Hestrin questioned whether the constitution’s authors ever imagined clemency on this scale. “Mass commutation, is that something that was ever even contemplated by the people who wrote our Constitution?” he asked. “That is going to have to be tested in the courts.”

What happens next

The Supreme Court’s review of the 382 cases is now the decisive step. Newsom has asked the justices to finish before the end of 2026 so he can sign the commutation certificates before his term ends in January. Any court challenge from prosecutors could slow that timetable further.

The political picture is shifting at the same time. Newsom’s successor, Xavier Becerra, won election on Tuesday has promised to keep the moratorium on executions that Newsom imposed in 2019. But Becerra has not said whether he would commute future death sentences, and his campaign did not answer questions on Friday. A spokesman for Newsom said the commutations cover only “the list as it is right now” — what happens to anyone sentenced to death in the future will be Becerra’s decision.

California has not carried out an execution since January 2006. Opponents of the death penalty say that makes new death sentences a false promise to victims, since the state never carries them out. “They would really be mistreating victims if they continue to do this,” said Natasha Minsker, director of the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition. The prosecutors’ answer is that the law is the law, and the voters have kept it. The fight over the 548 commutations is now heading for the courts — and the first new death sentence may not be far behind.

Source: New York Times, Newsmax, Los Angeles Times, Desert Sun | 7 November 2026