Death Penalty

Two new California Supreme Court rulings sided with prisoners contesting past gang-related charges, decisions that could affect 'three strikes' cases.

Evidence of racial bias in jury selection led Alameda County to review dozens of death penalty cases. A new district attorney is withdrawing from that effort.

A federal judge in April ordered Alameda County to review more than 30 of its death penalty convictions after evidence emerged suggesting the District Attorney’s Office blocked Black and Jewish people from serving on juries. This week, the California Supreme Court upheld a capital sentence from a trial that had no Black jurors.

San Quentin housed California’s death row for decades. Now Gov. Newsom wants the prison on San Francisco Bay to emphasize rehabilitation and helping inmates re-enter society.

Instead of outright abolition, opponents of the California death penalty are pushing legislation to limit death sentences. But the blowback to Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to dismantle Death Row at San Quentin demonstrates the political risk.

Gov. Newsom’s proposal to dismantle death row may not have as much impact on California's death penalty as other reforms.

Capital punishment has been a much-debated issue in California for more than seven decades and it's boiling over again.

The death penalty in California could be on the precipice of a dramatic change. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court will begin hearings in a case challenging the state’s application of the death penalty. The state’s highest court will consider whether to raise the bar for when a jury can sentence a defendant to capital […]

California's district attorneys are squabbling over whether California should continue to soften criminal penalties.

All things considered, California is faring better than expected amid the worst fire conditions of the season. Though desiccated winds topping 70 miles per hour ignited more than two dozen small fires in the northern part of the state, firefighters had fully contained all but two of them by Monday afternoon, and ongoing fires didn’t […]