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Thanks to a Nov. 5 action by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 548 inmates on the state’s death row will have their sentences commuted to life in prison as he moves to clear death row.
“I have decided to commute every death sentence,” Newsom wrote in an open letter, acknowledging that he understood that the decision would anger people and hurt the victims’ families who oppose it.
“I will therefore issue the same commutation to every condemned person — life without the possibility of parole, the most severe punishment I can lawfully impose and the state of California can ethically enforce,” he added.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an event held by the state Democratic Party at the Clubhouse at King’s Grant in Summerville, S.C., Sept. 3, 2026. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Newsom’s announcement doesn’t automatically remove every inmate from death row. State law would require the Supreme Court’s approval to commute sentences for inmates with numerous felony convictions. This includes hundreds of inmates currently on death row.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
California is home to some of the most notorious child murderers and serial killers, including the following 10:
Richard Allen Davis
In 1993, Richard Allen Davis broke into a Petaluma residence and kidnapped 12-year-old Polly Ann Klaas, who had been having a sleepover at her home with two friends. Davis strangled Polly and left her body in a remote area in Cloverdale.
Richard Allen Davis, who is imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison, was sentenced to death for kidnapping Polly Klaas from a sleepover at knifepoint and then strangling her. (Klaas Kids)
In 1996, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge sentenced Davis to death. His previous crimes helped prompt California’s Three Strikes law.
Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, later founded the nonprofit organization KlassKids Foundation, which operated for 30 years and assisted in the search for millions of missing children.
The Alphabet Killer
Between 1977 and 1994, Joseph Naso killed at least four women in Contra Costa, Marin and Yuba counties. He became known as the “Alphabet Killer” after choosing women who had the same letters in their first and last name.
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Joseph Naso listens to proceedings during his arraignment in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, Calif., April 13, 2011. (MediaNews Group/Marin Independent Journal via Getty Images)
In 2013, a Marin County Superior Court judge sentenced Naso to death.
The Yosemite Serial Killer
In February 1999, Cary Stayner killed four people near Yosemite National Park.
Stayner, a handyman at the nearby Cedar Lodge, murdered Carole Sund, 42. He also murdered and sexually assaulted her daughter Juli, 15, and killed family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16.
Months later, he beheaded a 26-year-old nature guide identified as Joie Armstrong.
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Motel handyman Cary Stayner pictured in a July 29, 1999, mugshot. He was charged Oct. 20, 1999, with capital murder in the killings of three Yosemite sightseers. He was also linked to a fourth slaying. (California Department of Corrections)
In 2002, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge sentenced Stayner to death for the murders of Sund and the teen girls. He was already serving a life sentence for murdering Armstrong.
Stayner first became notable as the older brother of Steven Stayner, who escaped a 1972 kidnapping in 1980.
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The Southside Slayer
Between 1987 and 1998, Chester Turner raped and murdered low-income women in South Los Angeles, often abandoning their bodies in dark alleys or vacant lots.
Authorities arrested Turner in 2003, after a DNA database matched him to the victims. He became known as the “Southside Slayer” after targeting women in the South Figueroa Street corridor, between Gage Avenue and 108th Street in Los Angeles County.
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Chester Turner appears during the first day of his trial in Los Angeles April 3, 2007. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In 2007, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Turner to death for killing 10 women. In 2014, he received another death sentence for the killings of four additional women.
Christopher Cheary
In 2011, Christopher Cheary murdered, raped and tortured Sophia Acosta, identified as his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter. The incident happened while he babysat Sophia and her sister at an Exeter apartment.
The child’s mother, who was not charged in the case, reported the crime after finding Sophia unconscious with head wounds. Medical staff later testified about finding internal trauma on the victim, including signs of sexual torture.
Christopher Cheary was found guilty of the 2011 murder of 3-year-old Sophia Acosta. (Tulare County District Attorney’s Office)
Following a 2016 conviction, a Tulare County Superior Court judge sentenced Cheary to death in 2017.
The Scorecard Killer
Between 1971 and 1983, Randy Kraft raped, tortured and killed at least 16 hitchhikers and young men across Southern California, although authorities believe he murdered over 60 people.
He became known as the “Scorecard Killer” after investigators found a scorecard in his vehicle, listing victims with the locations of bodies written in code. Kraft’s killing spree ended in 1983, when California Highway Patrol officers pulled him over and found deceased Marine Terry Lee Gambrel in his vehicle, in the front passenger seat.
Randy Steven Kraft, pictured at left, in 1983, and at right in June 2007, is likely California’s most prolific serial killer. He may have killed as many as 65 young men in Oregon, Michigan and California during a 13-year span that ended in 1983. He was sentenced to die after a trial that lasted nearly a year. His killing spree came to an end when he was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving in 1981 with a dead Marine in his Toyota. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)
Authorities linked 43 victims to coded handwriting on the scorecard but chose to charge Kraft with 16 to narrow the burden of proof.
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In 1989, an Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Kraft to death.
Isauro Aguirre
In 2013, Isauro Aguirre and girlfriend Pearl Fernandez killed 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez after torturing him for eight months in a Palmdale residence.
The torture, in part, included depriving Gabriel of food, beating him, forcing him to eat cat feces and locking him alone in a cabinet with a sock shoved inside his mouth.
Isauro Aguirre appears in Lancaster Superior Court May 28, 2013. He was later convicted and sentenced to death for the torture and murder of his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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In 2018, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Aguirre to death, while Fernandez received life in prison without parole.
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Charles Ng
Between 1983 and 1985, Charles abducted, tortured and murdered at least 11 people. The murders took place at a remote cabin, known as “The Castle” in Calaveras County.
Convicted murderer Charles Ng enters Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, where a jury recommended that he be put to death for killing 11 people in Northern California in 1984. (Al Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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In 1989, an Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Ng to death. Leonard Lake, a co-conspirator who committed the crimes with Ng, died by suicide during a police stand-off in 1985.
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The Trailside Killer
Between 1980 and 1981, David Carpenter, also known as the “Trailside Killer,” raped and murdered at least seven hikers in Marin County and Santa Cruz.
Public defender Frank Cox, left, at the defense table with David Carpenter, in San Rafael, Calif., in December 1984. (MediaNews Group/Marin Independent Journal via Getty Images)
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In 1984, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Carpenter to death for the Santa Cruz murders. In 1988, a San Diego County Superior Court judge sentenced him to death for the Marin County crimes.
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Cherie Rhoades
Cherie Rhoades, the former leader of a small Northern California Indian tribe, fatally shot four people and tried to kill two more at a tribal meeting over her eviction in 2014.
Cherie Louise Rhoades in an undated booking photo released by the Modoc County Sheriff’s office in Alturas, Calif. (Reuters/Modoc County Sheriff Office/Handout via Reuters)
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She was sentenced to death in 2017.
