Business Leader Calls for End to California’s ​“Broken” Death Penalty System

A promi­nent busi­ness exec­u­tive and mem­ber of a larg­er coali­tion of over 500 glob­al busi­ness lead­ers is call­ing on California Governor Gavin Newsom to com­mute all death sen­tences in California to life with­out parole. In a July 2025 op-ed, Matthew Stepka, a mem­ber of Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty, calls California’s death penal­ty sys­tem a fail­ure of both jus­tice and fiscal responsibility.

“As an exec­u­tive and investor, I find it unthink­able that we con­tin­ue to pour pub­lic resources into such a fun­da­men­tal­ly bro­ken sys­tem,” writes Mr. Stepka, man­ag­ing part­ner of Machina Ventures. ​“If any com­pa­ny or prod­uct I eval­u­at­ed had an error rate com­pa­ra­ble to the death penal­ty — where for every eight peo­ple exe­cut­ed, one per­son has been exon­er­at­ed — I would nev­er invest.” Despite not exe­cut­ing any­one for near­ly two decades, California has con­tin­ued to invest hun­dreds of mil­lions of tax­pay­er dol­lars to main­tain use of the death penal­ty in the state. The Sacramento Bee found that death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions in just the last five years cost tax­pay­ers more than $300 mil­lion, while the Conference of Chief Justices esti­mat­ed that appoint­ing attor­neys for every­one who cur­rent­ly requires a lawyer one would cost tax­pay­ers more than $600 million. 

Mr. Stepka warns that using the death penal­ty dam­ages California’s rep­u­ta­tion as ​“the world’s fourth largest econ­o­my” by sug­gest­ing ​“a pref­er­ence for arbi­trary deci­sion-mak­ing over evi­dence-based pol­i­cy, reck­less spend­ing over fis­cal pru­dence and state-sanc­tioned ret­ri­bu­tion over fair­ness and jus­tice.” States with the death penal­ty con­sis­tent­ly report high­er mur­der rates than those with­out, con­tra­dict­ing deter­rence claims, while the death penal­ty ​“diverts valu­able tax­pay­er resources from pri­or­i­ties like edu­ca­tion, men­tal health­care, child abuse pre­ven­tion and infrastructure.” 

Mr. Stepka’s crit­i­cism reflects a broad­er trend among busi­ness lead­ers. The Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), through its Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty cam­paign, has unit­ed over 500 exec­u­tives from around the globe against the death penal­ty — the first effort of its kind. According to one of RBIJ’s found­ing mem­bers, Sir Richard Branson, the death penal­ty ​“is marred by cru­el­ty, waste inef­fec­tive­ness, dis­crim­i­na­tion and an unac­cept­able risk of error.” By speak­ing out, he says, ​“busi­ness lead­ers have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to help end this inhu­mane and flawed prac­tice.” RBIJ works with com­pa­nies on crim­i­nal legal reform ini­tia­tives includ­ing the death penal­ty, juve­nile sen­tenc­ing, and fair hiring practices.

While acknowl­edg­ing Gov. Newson’s recent reforms, includ­ing dis­man­tling San Quentin’s death row, Mr. Stepka warned that the governor’s exec­u­tive mora­to­ri­um can always be reversed by a future gov­er­nor. In March 2025, Louisiana end­ed a 15-year pause on exe­cu­tions with the nitro­gen gas exe­cu­tion of Jesse Hoffman. Mr. Stepka not­ed that if California was to resume exe­cu­tions, many of the near­ly 600 peo­ple on death row would be at risk of immi­nent exe­cu­tion because their appeals have been exhaust­ed. He urged Gov. Newsom to fol­low prece­dent set by oth­er state exec­u­tives who have issued large grants of clemen­cy, not­ing that ​“life sen­tences work: they cost less than exe­cu­tions, keep com­mu­ni­ties safe and pre­vent the killing of peo­ple who were unfair­ly and wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced.” In June 2025, near­ly 200 orga­ni­za­tions also urged Gov. Newsom to grant clemen­cy to the peo­ple on California’s death row.