What proportion of Gavin Newsom's pardons were for violent crimes?
Executive summary
Available reporting in the provided set does not contain a clear, comprehensive breakdown of the crimes covered by every pardon Gavin Newsom has issued, so a precise proportion of his pardons that were for violent crimes is not directly stated in these sources (available sources do not mention a single aggregated percentage) [1] [2]. The governor’s office reported cumulative counts of pardons across years — for example, 144 pardons as of May/July 2024 and 247 pardons as of August 2025 — and individual clemency actions lists for certain announcements that mention some murder, attempted murder and assault cases, but none of the supplied items tabulates “violent vs. nonviolent” shares for his full record [1] [2] [3].
1. What the state sources do say: total counts and examples
California’s official sites provided totals and case lists at specific moments: a 2024 release said Newsom had granted 144 pardons while in office up to that date [1], an April 2025 announcement described 16 pardons and 9 commutations in a single action (25 clemency grants) including some violent-offense cases [3], and an August 2025 release put cumulative pardons at 247 [2]. Those press releases include narrative explanations of clemency criteria and sometimes describe individual grantees — including people convicted of murder, attempted murder and other violent offenses — but they do not convert those case examples into a comprehensive percentage of violent-case pardons across his entire tenure [3] [2].
2. Independent compilations and reporting in the sample: partial snapshots, not full tallies
An advocacy site (Death Penalty Focus) summarized a Newsom announcement that he pardoned 37 individuals and commuted 18 in one action and reported aggregate totals since 2019 — 181 pardons, 141 commutations at that moment — but that piece does not provide the violent/nonviolent split either [4]. A Daily Mail story flagged that among 25 clemency recipients in April 2025 some had been convicted of murder or attempted murder, and framed the action as politically controversial, but it reports examples rather than a full accounting [5]. These are case-level snapshots, not statistical breakdowns of his entire pardon portfolio [4] [5].
3. Why available sources don’t let us produce a proportion
None of the supplied releases or stories furnishes a single dataset categorizing each pardoned individual by offense type and aggregating those counts into “violent vs. nonviolent” percentages. Official releases give cumulative totals and describe selection criteria and some individual grants, but stop short of a tabulation that would support a definitive proportion [1] [2]. Independent items in the set either recount the same official totals or highlight individual violent cases without converting them into an overall share [4] [5].
4. What we can say with confidence from these sources
Newsom has used clemency power repeatedly and publicly: by mid‑2024 his office reported 144 pardons while in office [1]; subsequent releases show additional batches and by August 2025 a cumulative 247 pardons were reported [2]. Some announced clemency recipients included convictions for murder, attempted murder and other violent crimes — those case examples appear explicitly in official releases and press coverage [3] [5]. But the supplied documentation does not translate those examples into a proportion of all pardons that were for violent offenses [3] [2].
5. Competing narratives and political context
Advocates and the governor’s office emphasize rehabilitation, public‑safety rationales and removal of reentry barriers in explaining pardons and commutations [1] [2]. Critics and some outlets highlight specific violent‑offense recipients and frame clemency as “soft on crime,” using the most politically combustible examples to press that case [5]. The documents in this set reflect both frames: official messaging focuses on totals and process; opposition coverage singles out violent cases — but neither side here provides the full offense-by-offense breakdown needed to compute a definitive percentage [1] [5].
6. How to get the number you asked for
To compute a reliable proportion, request or compile a dataset that lists every pardon Newsom granted (ideally with conviction categories). The governor’s clemency office or the state Department of Justice may maintain full case lists and offense codes; assembling those would permit an exact violent-versus-nonviolent percentage. Available sources here do not include that complete dataset, so they cannot support a precise proportion (available sources do not mention a single aggregated percentage) [1] [2].
Limitations: this analysis is strictly limited to the supplied sources; claims beyond what those items contain are not made.