# Officer’s mother angered as Newsom commutes 548 death sentences

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/mom-of-slain-cop-breaks-down-over-gavin-newsoms-mass-commutation-of-death-row-killers/
- Published: 2026-11-06T05:15:21+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-06T11:31:06+00:00
- Original publisher: New York Post (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://nypost.com/2026/11/05/us-news/mom-of-slain-cop-breaks-down-over-gavin-newsoms-mass-communtation-of-death-row/
- Topics: World

## Key points

- Newsom commuted all 548 California death sentences.
- Phyllis Loya says the decision reopened the pain of her son’s killing.
- Her son, officer Larry Lasater, was killed in 2005.

## Summary

California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted the death sentences of all 548 people on the state’s death row, a decision that has deeply upset some victims’ families. Phyllis Loya, whose son was a police officer killed in 2005, said the move left her angry and retraumatised, and accused Newsom of overlooking victims’ families.

Larry Lasater was shot while trying to arrest two robbery suspects in Pittsburg, California. Alexander Rashad Hamilton was sentenced to death for the killing and will now serve life without parole; Loya said she lacks confidence that the justice system will maintain that punishment. Lasater, a Marine Corps veteran who had served with the Pittsburg Police Department for five years, died before his son was born, and Loya recalled that a sonogram was buried with him.

## Coverage

- [New York Post: Officer’s mother angered as Newsom commutes 548 death sentences](https://nypost.com/2026/11/05/us-news/mom-of-slain-cop-breaks-down-over-gavin-newsoms-mass-communtation-of-death-row/)
- [GB News: Gavin Newsom to grant clemency to all 548 death row inmates in California as he declares capital punishment 'morally wrong'](https://www.gbnews.com/news/us/gavin-newsom-grant-clemency-death-row-inmates-california)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.