The last execution in California took place on January 17, 2006, when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison. No one has been executed in the state since. Federal courts first blocked California’s lethal injection protocol just weeks after Allen died, and Governor Gavin Newsom later converted that court-imposed standstill into a formal moratorium in 2019.
Who Clarence Ray Allen Was
Allen was 76 when he was executed, the second-oldest person put to death in the United States since capital punishment resumed nationwide in 1976.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Executed Inmate Summary – Clarence Ray Allen He had spent 23 years and one month on death row.2California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Inmates Executed 1978 to Present
His crimes came from two separate cases. In 1974, Allen masterminded a burglary of a Fresno market and arranged the killing of Mary Sue Kitts, a young woman who had revealed his involvement. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sent to Folsom State Prison with a life sentence. From prison, he plotted revenge against the witnesses who had testified against him. Three days after an associate named Billie Ray Hamilton was paroled, Allen directed him to Fran’s Market in Fresno, where Hamilton murdered Bryon Schletewitz, Josephine Rocha, and Douglas White on September 5, 1980. Schletewitz was the primary target; Rocha and White were killed because they were working alongside him.1California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Executed Inmate Summary – Clarence Ray Allen
Allen was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and arrived on death row on December 2, 1982. His was the 13th execution in California since voters reinstated capital punishment through Proposition 7 in November 1978.3California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. History of Capital Punishment in California
Why Executions Stopped After 2006
In February 2006, weeks after Allen’s execution, federal judge Jeremy Fogel halted the scheduled execution of Michael Angelo Morales. In Morales v. Tilton, Fogel found that the way California administered its three-drug lethal injection protocol created too great a risk that an inmate would suffer extreme pain, raising serious Eighth Amendment concerns. He ordered the state to either have a licensed medical professional administer the injection or fix its procedures. California could do neither, and the stay effectively shut down all executions.
What followed was more than a decade of failed attempts to restart the process. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tried to revise its protocol multiple times. A Marin County Superior Court judge struck down one proposed set of regulations because the department had not followed required administrative rulemaking procedures, and that ruling was upheld on appeal. Each new attempt hit similar procedural or legal obstacles. Death sentences continued to be handed down, but the state could not lawfully schedule an execution.
Newsom’s 2019 Moratorium
On March 13, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-09-19.4Governor of California. Executive Order N-09-19 The order did three things: it granted a reprieve to every person then sentenced to death in California, it repealed the state’s lethal injection protocol, and it directed the immediate closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin.5Governor of California. Governor Gavin Newsom Orders a Halt to the Death Penalty in California
The order did not change any underlying death sentences. Everyone on death row remained legally sentenced to death. The moratorium ensured only that no execution would happen during Newsom’s time in office.
Can Executions Resume
Newsom’s second term expires in January 2027, and the moratorium is tied to his tenure. A successor governor could rescind the executive order. Lifting it would not instantly restart executions, though. California would still need to develop a new, legally defensible lethal injection protocol, survive the court challenges that would follow, and find medical professionals willing to participate. The state spent over a decade failing to accomplish exactly that before the moratorium made the question moot.
Clemency has its own limits. California’s constitution requires the governor to get approval from the state Supreme Court before granting clemency to anyone convicted of two or more felonies. That restriction applies to the majority of death row inmates and constrains any governor’s ability to unilaterally commute death sentences to life terms.
The executive order itself acknowledged this. It stated that it did not alter existing death sentences, “leaving open the possibility that executions will be carried out in the future.”
Where Death Row Stands Now
As of March 2026, 578 people remain sentenced to death in California, still the largest death row in the country even as the number falls.6California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Summary In 2024, roughly 58 people were removed from death row through resentencing, natural death, and other causes, the largest single-year drop since tracking began in 1991.7Death Penalty Information Center. State Spotlight: California Death Row Shrinks Sharply in 2024 Courts agreed to resentence at least 45 of those individuals to life terms or lesser sentences.
Under the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, more than 512 formerly condemned inmates have been moved out of San Quentin’s segregated death row units and into general population housing at other prisons with electrified perimeter fencing. All women previously held in condemned housing at the Central California Women’s Facility have also been relocated. As of mid-2024, San Quentin’s East Block, the historic death row, was fully emptied.8California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Transfer Program (CITP)
San Quentin itself is being repurposed. In February 2026, Newsom opened an 81,000-square-foot Learning Center on the prison grounds, tripling classroom and programming space as part of a $239 million redevelopment. The facility, now called the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, includes partnerships with Cal State LA, UC Berkeley, and Mt. Tamalpais College for college coursework, along with coding programs, podcast studios, and reentry services. East Block, where condemned inmates once lived, is being converted to rehabilitative housing.9Governor of California. Governor Newsom Transforms San Quentin, Opens Nation-Leading Learning Center The building that housed California’s death row for decades is now, functionally, a school.