Breaking News: Richard Glossip pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese. Prosecutors dismissed the murder charge against him. Sentencing will take place December 17.

Clemency

Notable Grants of Clemency

Since 1976, there have been twelve broad or blanket grants of clemency to death row prisoners:

  • Gov. Gavin Newsom in California in 2026 (all 548 death-sentenced prisoners, some pending review by the California Supreme Court).
  • President Joe Biden in 2024 (37 out of 40 federal death-row prisoners). In a statement, President Biden explained: “These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. … In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
  • Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina in 2024 (15 death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon in 2022 (all death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado in 2020 (all death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Martin O’Malley in Maryland in 2015 (all death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Pat Quinn in Illinois in 2011 (all death-sentenced prisoners), just before signing bill repealing death penalty.
  • Gov. Jon Corzine (pictured) in New Jersey in 2007 (all death-sentenced prisoners), just before signing bill repealing death penalty.
  • Gov. George Ryan in Illinois in 2003 (all death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Richard Celeste in Ohio in 1991 (8 death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Toney Anaya in New Mexico in 1986 (all death-sentenced prisoners).
  • Gov. Leonard Ray Blanton in Tennessee in 1979 (commuted the sentences of 49 death row prisoners and pardoned 3 others) 

There were six notable grants of broad clemency prior to the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976:

  • Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller (pictured) commuted all death sentences in Arkansas in 1971.
  • Gov. Frank Clement commuted all the death sentences in Tennessee in 1965, after the legislature defeated an abolition bill by a single vote.
  • Gov. Endicott “Chub” Peabody of Massachusetts commuted every death sentence (1962 – 1964).
  • Gov. Robert D. Holmes of Oregon commuted every death sentence that arose during his term (1957 – 1959).
  • Gov. Mark Hatfield of Oregon commuted every death sentence after the death penalty was abolished by state referendum in 1964.
  • Gov. Averill Harriman of New York commuted all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented (1955 – 1959)
  • Gov. Herbet Lehman of New York commuted all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented (1933 – 1942)
  • Gov. Thomas McRae of Arkansas commuted the death sentences of six Black men convicted in a race riot (1924)
  • Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York commuted all death sentences where at least one appellate judge had dissented (1919)
  • Gov. Frank Byrne of South Dakota called for abolition of the death penalty in his 1913 inaugural address and signed the ban into law by February of 1915
  • Gov. Lee Cruce of Oklahoma commuted every death sentence imposed during his administration (1911 – 1915).
  • Gov. W.P. Hunt of Arizona granted 105 pardons, commutations, and reprieves during his first term (1912 – 1915).
  • Gov. George Washington Donaghey of Arkansas granted 396 commutations at once and commuted the sentences of all people working in Arkansas “chain gangs.” (1900 – 1913)

Notable grants of clemency from U.S. Presidents:

Until 1960, every U.S. president except Warren Harding commuted at least one death sentence during their term. The following made blanket clemency grants.

  • 2024: President Joseph Biden (37 of 40 death sentences)
  • 1918: President Woodrow Wilson (10 soldiers from Texas)
  • 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant (blanket pardons for 150,000 former confederate soldiers except 500 leaders with his Amnesty Act of 1872)
  • 1868: President Andrew Johnson (7 including blanket pardons to all former confederates convicted of treason in the Civil War)
  • President Abraham Lincoln
    • 1863 (blanket amnesty/pardon to persons convicted of treason in the Civil War, including Brigham Young)
    • 1864 (Dakota indigenous tribes in Minnesota responded to the government’s unkept promises by attacking and killing hundreds of settlers and driving over 30,000 from their homes. It was the bloodiest attack on civilians on U.S. soil prior to 9/11. U.S. Army forces put down the rebellion and condemned 303 Dakotas to death. As the President and two government lawyers poured over military records, they discovered that some trials had lasted only 15 minutes, and some people were condemned solely based on hearsay or proximity to the uprising. Lincoln spared 264 out of 303.)
  • 1858: President James Buchanan (12 including blanket pardons to Mormons convicted of treason and sedition against the United States in the Utah War)
  • 1828: President John Quincy Adams (blanket pardons to Ho-Chunk tribe members sentenced to death in the Winnebago War)
  • About 1817: President James Monroe (blanket pardons to approx. 13 to 40 people convicted of piracy and sentenced in the War of 1812)
  • 1812 – 1816: President James Madison (blanket pardon/amnesty to persuade deserters sentenced to death to return to army service and to Quaker conscientious objectors)
  • 1801: President Thomas Jefferson (blanket pardons for people convicted under the Sedition Act 1798)
  • 1798: President John Adams (blanket pardons for a group of tax resisters convicted of treason)
  • 1774 – 1775: President George Washington (pardoned 16 Pennsylvanians convicted of treason in the Whiskey Rebellion)

California Governors

List of CA Govs who granted clemency in death penalty cases

  1. 1850 – 1851 Gov. Peter Burnett
  2. 1851 – 1852 Gov. John McDougal
  3. 1852 – 1856 Gov. John Bigler
  4. 1856 – 1858 Gov. J. Neely Johnson
  5. 1858 – 1860 Gov. John Weller
  6. 1860 – 1862 Gov. John Downey
  7. 1862 – 1863 Gov. Leland Stanford
  8. 1863 – 1867 Gov. Frederick Low
  9. 1867 – 1871 Gov. Henry Haight
  10. 1871 – 1875 Gov. Newton Booth
  11. 1875 Gov. Romualdo Pacheco
  12. 1880 – 1883 Gov. George Perkins
  13. 1883 – 1887 Gov. George Stoneman
  14. 1887 – 1891 Gov. Robert Waterman
  15. 1891 – 1895 Gov. Henry Harrison Markham
  16. 1903 – 1907 Gov. George Pardee
  17. 1907 – 1911 Gov. James Gillett
  18. 1911 – 1917 Gov. Hiram Johnson
  19. 1917 – 1923 Gov. William Stephens
  20. 1923 – 1927 Gov. Friend Richardson
  21. 1927 – 1931 Gov. C. C. Young
  22. 1931 – 1934 Gov. James Rolph
  23. 1934 – 1939 Gov. Frank Merriam
  24. 1941 – 1943 Gov. Culbert Olson
  25. 1943 – 1953 Gov. Earl Warren
  26. 1953 – 1959 Gov. Goodwin Knight
  27. 1959 – 1967 Gov. Pat Brown
  28. 1967 – 1975 Gov. Ronald Reagan
  29. 2019 – 2026 Gov. Gavin Newsom