The American Civil Liberties Union recently called upon California Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute every death sentence on California death row to life without the chance for parole.
In a press release, the civil rights organization built upon calls it had previously made at the press conference held by the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition. The latest move comes as the California Supreme Court announced the consideration of the ACLU’s previous petition. Filed in 2024, the petition alleged that the state’s death penalty statute was racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
In the report, the ACLU found that Black people are nearly five times more likely to be sentenced to death for similar situations than white defendants who have not. In comparison, Latino people are nearly three times more likely to receive the same sentence as well.
Through the petition, the civil rights organization called upon the Supreme Court to declare the capital sentencing laws invalid under the Constitution.
“As the lawsuit we filed in 2024 makes clear, the stark racial disparities in the application of California’s death-penalty system violate equal protection,” said the director of appellate advocacy at the ACLU of Northern California, Neil Sawhney, per a statement. “While we are hopeful that the California Supreme Court will rule in our favor, the governor can immediately remedy this unconstitutional discrimination through executive clemency.”
Throughout the years, extensive content has been published on the topic, drawing attention to racially discriminatory practices in sentencing in California.
In a 2025 report, UC Berkeley Law shared findings from a 44-year-long study conducted in the 1970s. In the report, researchers found that, from 1978 to 1993 alone, the chances that the District Attorney sought circumstances needed for the death penalty were nearly four times higher when Black defendants were involved.
In cases where the defendants were Black and the victims were white, the chance of the death penalty was 6.5 times higher than in cases where victims were Black or Latino.
Decades later, the racial discrimination in sentences for the death penalty continues as California continues to sentence more defendants to death row. Currently, the state has the largest death row in the country.
Approximately 570 people sit on death row, with approximately 60% of the defendants sentenced over 20 years ago.
“The evidence makes it abundantly clear that racial inequality infects every aspect of California’s death penalty system,” said ACLU senior counsel Claudia Van Wyk. “Gov. Newsom recognized this when he imposed his moratorium on executions, but systemic failures of this magnitude require more than a temporary pause. While the courts deliberate our legal challenge, executive clemency offers an immediate remedy. The governor must finish what he started and commute every death sentence.”
