The article “Advocates Urge Governor to Commute All Life Sentences” appeared in the Los Angeles Wave on October 13th, and is written by Antonio Ray Harvey.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is considering commuting the death sentences of all 563 people on California’s death row to life imprisonment without parole, a potentially historic action that follows years of pressure from civil rights organizations, public defenders and human rights advocates seeking to end capital punishment in the state. Criminal Justice Reform advocates are urging him to take it a step further and commute the sentences of more than 5,000 individuals serving life sentences in California before he leaves office.
Excerpts from the article appear below.
SACRAMENTO — The members of the Drop Life Without Parole, a grassroots coalition and sentencing reform group, along with other advocacy organizations, are asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute the sentences of more than 5,000 individuals serving life sentences in California before he leaves office.
Drop Life Without Parole (DropLWOP Coalition), along with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, the Anti-Violence, Safety and Accountability Project, human rights advocates and family members of incarcerated people, called for the release of California prisoners serving life without parole during a Sept. 29 news conference and rally on the west steps of the State Capitol.
Amber Rose Howard, the executive director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, said those serving life without parole already play a vital role in the broader push for commutations.
“We are here today because we care so much about ending life without parole sentencing,” Howard said. “So many people serving life without parole are the reason why that’s been able to happen. The programs, services, and all of the things that happen inside (of prisons) that rehabilitate (the incarcerated) started many years ago by folks with life without parole. They have proven that we can change ourselves. They paved the way to get ourselves free.”
Among advocates and incarcerated people, life without parole is often described as “death by incarceration” or the “other death penalty.”
The calls for commutations come as Newsom is reportedly holding discussions with key advisers about sparing the lives of all 563 prisoners on California’s death row before leaving office in January. According to a number of Capitol insiders and California Black Media sources close to the governor’s office, Newsom has been considering commuting their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole, a move that would represent the largest mass death row commutation in modern U.S. history.
Roughly 68% of those serving life without parole in the state are Black or Latino, 62% were 25 or younger at the time of their offense, and 71% were first-time convicted, according to data cited by the Drop Life Without Parole Coalition.
Barbara Chavez, an Outside Policy Fellow for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, champions criminal justice reform and campaigns to end life without parole sentences.
Chavez served 20 years and four months in prison for her role as the getaway driver in a 1999 Kern County liquor store robbery in which an employee was killed. She was 22 when she was convicted and sentenced to life without parole under California’s former felony-murder law.
Through a combination of executive clemency and a parole board grant, former California Gov. Jerry Brown commuted her life without parole sentence in 2018, restructuring it to a lesser term that allowed her the opportunity to appear before a parole board.
Chavez was subsequently released from prison in 2019. She says her work now draws on her lived experience to help dismantle systemic barriers through initiatives led by the Inside/Outside Policy Fellowship at the Ella Baker Center.
“I’ve been home for seven years, and I am proof of success,” Chavez said. “When you give other people who have life sentences without the possibility of parole a chance, they will come home and thrive. I never gave up hope, and I am here to tell you don’t give up hope. Hope is alive.”
You can read the full article “Advocates Urge Governor to Commute All Life Sentences” at the Los Angeles Wave website. The Los Angeles Wave, founded in 1912, is the largest group of community newspapers in Los Angeles and is highly recognized for quality local and national news.
Antonio Ray Harvey writes for California Black Media.
