California holds more people under death sentences than any other state, with 589 condemned inmates in the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as of April 2025. No one has been executed in California since 2006, and a formal moratorium signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 has kept the execution chamber closed for the entirety of his time in office. At the same time, the state is dismantling the segregated death row units that housed these inmates for decades and moving them into general population housing at prisons across California.
Who Is on California’s Death Row
Of the 589 condemned inmates reported by CDCR in April 2025, 18 are women. The population is shrinking. At least 70 people have been resentenced or died since early 2022, when Newsom ordered the dismantlement of the traditional death row facility at San Quentin.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Transfer Program – Capital Punishment
CDCR’s summary data show Black individuals making up roughly 33 percent of the condemned population, White individuals about 31 percent, and Mexican-American and Hispanic individuals combined accounting for approximately 28 percent, with other racial and ethnic groups making up the remainder.2California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Summary – Capital Punishment
Many were sentenced in the 1980s and 1990s. A large share of the population is now over 50, and a growing number are in their 60s and 70s. That aging drives rising medical costs and creates logistical challenges for the prison system, since older inmates require significantly more hospitalization and chronic-disease management than younger ones.
Where Condemned Inmates Are Housed Now
For decades, men sentenced to death were held in segregated units at San Quentin, and women were held separately at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. That arrangement is ending. CDCR is phasing out its segregated death row units at both facilities under the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, known as CITP.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Transfer Program – Capital Punishment
The program grew out of Proposition 66, the Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act approved by voters in 2016, and its permanent regulations took effect on January 31, 2024. CITP participants are transferred to facilities with at least a Level II security classification and a lethal electrified perimeter fence. They can access work programs, rehabilitation services, and educational opportunities that were unavailable in the old segregated units. Transfers also allow inmates to be housed closer to their families.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Transfer Program – Capital Punishment
California Penal Code Section 3600 requires that every man sentenced to death be delivered to the state prison designated for executions and held there until his sentence is carried out. The same statute permits CDCR to transfer an inmate to any other prison it determines provides sufficient security, which is the legal basis for the current moves.3California Legislative Information. California Code Penal Code 3600
Women with death sentences remain at the Central California Women’s Facility but are now being placed into appropriate general-population housing throughout the institution rather than in a segregated unit.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Transfer Program – Capital Punishment
Proposition 66 also requires every condemned inmate to work while in state prison. By statute, 70 percent of any wages or trust account deposits a condemned inmate receives must go toward court-ordered restitution owed to victims, and that deduction continues until the restitution balance is paid off.4California Legislative Analyst’s Office. Proposition 66 Ballot Analysis
Why No One Is Being Executed
In March 2019, Newsom signed Executive Order N-09-19, imposing a moratorium on the death penalty for as long as he remains in office. The order granted a reprieve to every person under a death sentence, directed CDCR to repeal the state’s lethal injection protocol, and ordered the immediate closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin.5State of California. Executive Order N-09-19
The moratorium does not commute anyone’s sentence and does not lead to anyone’s release. Every person sentenced to death keeps that legal status, and their convictions remain in full effect. If a future governor lifts the moratorium, executions could resume in principle, though the state would need to adopt a new execution protocol first. California law authorizes execution by lethal injection or, if the inmate chooses, lethal gas.
The last person executed in California died by lethal injection at San Quentin on January 17, 2006.6California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Executed Inmate Summary – Clarence Ray Allen In the nearly two decades since, legal challenges to the lethal injection protocol and then the moratorium have kept the chamber closed. The state continues to sentence people to death in new trials, maintains an elaborate appellate system for capital cases, and houses hundreds of condemned inmates, yet has no functioning mechanism to carry out a single execution.
How People End Up Sentenced to Death
A death sentence in California requires a first-degree murder conviction plus at least one “special circumstance” listed in the Penal Code. A jury must find that special circumstance true beyond a reasonable doubt before the death penalty becomes an option. Without a special circumstance, the maximum sentence for first-degree murder is 25 years to life.7California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 190.2
Special circumstances include murder for financial gain, killing more than one victim or having a prior murder conviction, intentionally killing a peace officer, firefighter, federal agent, prosecutor, judge, or elected official in connection with their duties, killing a witness to prevent or retaliate for testimony, murder committed during a robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, sexual assault, burglary, or arson, murder by bomb, explosive, or poison, murder committed while lying in wait, and murder motivated by the victim’s race, religion, nationality, or other protected characteristic.
Even when a special circumstance is proven, the jury still chooses between death and life without parole. The prosecution must convince the jury that the aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating evidence, such as the defendant’s background, mental health, or role in the crime.7California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 190.2
How People Leave Death Row
Despite the moratorium, the condemned population continues to shrink. California’s death row shrank sharply in 2024, with at least 45 people resentenced to life terms or lesser sentences in that year alone. There are several ways someone leaves condemned status:
- Resentencing by court order. If an appellate court finds legal errors in the original trial or sentencing, a judge can vacate the death sentence and impose a new one, often life without parole. Changes in the law can also make someone eligible for resentencing. This has been the largest driver of recent population declines.
- Natural death. With an aging population and average stays stretching decades, many condemned inmates die of chronic illness or age-related conditions before their appeals are resolved. This has long been the most common way people leave death row in California.
- Suicide. A small number of deaths over the years have been self-inflicted.
- Exoneration. Nationwide, more than 200 people sentenced to death since 1973 have been exonerated after evidence of their innocence emerged. Exonerations sometimes result from post-conviction DNA testing, recanted witness testimony, or other newly discovered evidence.
- Executive clemency. The governor has the power to commute a death sentence to life without parole, though this authority has been used sparingly in California.
What the System Costs
California’s death penalty is far more expensive than sentencing people to life without parole. Capital trials take roughly four times longer than non-capital murder trials, require two appointed defense attorneys instead of one, involve more expensive expert witnesses and jury selection, and generate decades of mandatory appellate proceedings that the state must fund.
Housing costs are also higher. Condemned inmates have historically required specialized units with increased security staffing, and even under the CITP transition they remain in facilities with electrified perimeters and elevated supervision. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated California could save roughly $150 million per year by replacing the death penalty with life without parole. A separate academic study from 2011 put the additional annual cost of pursuing executions at $184 million compared to the life-without-parole alternative.
Those figures don’t account for the rising medical expenses of an aging condemned population. Inmates over 55 tend to consume a disproportionate share of prison healthcare resources, and with many condemned inmates now in their 60s and 70s, those costs will keep growing.