From [DPIC] The California legislature has taken a major stride towards reforming the state’s death-penalty practices, passing two bills that would remove from death row individuals whose capital convictions were the product of racial discrimination and those whose deteriorated mental condition has left them permanently mentally incompetent. 

On August 31, 2022, the California Assembly concurred in Senate Amendments and sent to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom The Racial Justice Act for All, which makes retroactive the provisions of a law enacted in 2020 that provide for vacating death sentences in which the conviction or sentence was obtained “on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.” The same day, following Assembly agreement to Senate amendments on August 23, the legislature sent to the governor a bill that would create a mechanism to remove from death row individuals found to be permanently mentally incompetent. Both bills, which are expected to reduce the size of California’s 684-person death row, are awaiting action from Gov. Newsom.