Opponents of the death penalty rally at San Francisco City Hall in 2025 to call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute all the state’s death sentences.

During the 49 years since Amnesty International started campaigning against the death penalty, more than 110 countries have outlawed this inhumane practice. Year after year, however, the United States is among a handful of countries that continue to use it. In 2025, the U.S. had the fifth-highest number of executions in the world, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It is the only executioner in the Americas.  

Shockingly, 25% of those on death row in the U.S. are sitting in California prisons. 

I’m the executive director of Amnesty International USA, and last month, I met with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team to discuss how he can leave a legacy when it comes to ending the use of this inhumane punishment. 

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California has not executed anybody in two decades, and Newsom issued a moratorium on executions in 2019, but the state still has the largest death row in the entire nation with more than 550 people. In fact, with the simple snap of his fingers, the next governor could resume executions. For that reason, Newsom should seize a historic opportunity to move California closer to ending the death penalty by commuting all of the death sentences in the state. But his time is running out.  

Newsom has always been forthcoming about his position against this cruel punishment. When he imposed the moratorium on executions, he called California’s death penalty system unfair and discriminatory. He was right.

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