Gavin Newsom reveals the tragic death row case that triggered him to commute all execution sentences after speaking to victim's two sisters

California's Governor has revealed the harrowing death row case that fueled the launch of his controversial commutation of 547 execution sentences.Gavin Newsom has unveiled that it was the case of slain 12-year-old schoolgirl Polly Klaas that convinced him of the gentler approach.Klaas was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and murdered in 1993 by Richard Allen Davis, who is still alive and on death row. Her case subsequently galvanized a national movement for harsher criminal penalties.But it was a deeply emotional October conversation with Klaas’s two sisters inside San Quentin prison that inspired his decision to grant clemency to every condemned inmate in California.Jess and Annie Nichol met the governor inside a former death row cell, in the very prison tower that housed their half-sister’s killer, Richard Allen Davis for 30 years.'It’s former death row, which was weird for us,’ Jess said. ‘The man who killed our sister lived there for 30 years.’Annie admitted that even ten years ago she could never have imagined voluntarily walking into the prison. 'Same,’ Jess replied.But rather than demand that murderers face execution, the sisters delivered a very different message, that state-sanctioned killing does not bring victims back, heal grieving families or necessarily deliver justice. The murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas helped send America on a decades-long crusade for tougher punishments for killers. More than 30 years later, her sisters have helped persuade California Governor Gavin Newsom to take the extraordinary step of commuting the death sentences of all 547 prisoners on the state’s death row Klaas was just 12 when Richard Allen Davis broke into her bedroom during a sleepover at her Petaluma home in 1993, abducted her and murdered her The killing sent shockwaves across America, became one of the country’s most notorious child murder cases and helped propel tougher criminal justice lawsTheir words left Newsom so moved that he later described the encounter as one of the most profound meetings of his political life.‘It was really, to me, one of the most profound and outsize meetings that I’ve had. Not just on this topic,’ he told the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday.The killing sent shockwaves across America, became one of the country’s most notorious child murder cases and helped fuel the passage of tougher criminal justice laws.Annie was just six years old when her half-sister was killed. Jess was 12.Both have become outspoken opponents of the death penalty, arguing that victims’ families need meaningful support and reforms to the justice system rather than another death carried out in the name of their loved ones.For Annie, seeing her sister's murder become a rallying cry for increasingly punitive criminal justice policies has been deeply painful.She described it as ‘heartbreaking and retraumatizing’ to watch the case contribute to a wave of tough-on-crime laws that helped fill prisons across the country.‘There’s a relief in knowing the state is stepping away from another death in Polly’s name,’ she said. Richard Allen Davis pictured in a mugshot in 2023 The Petaluma home where the school girl was taken from Jess and Annie Nichol, who were 12 and 6 when their sister became Davis's prey, sat down with the governor at San Quentin prison in late October to advocate for the abolition of death sentences The setting for their meeting was especially unnerving as the sister's meeting of choice was inside the very institution that held their sister's killer for 30 yearsThe sisters told the Chronicle that Newsom appeared surprised by their position, but was willing to listen.Jess said she had been taken aback to discover just how influential their conversation had been.‘I don’t believe he was expecting that,’ she said. ‘He looked surprised for much of the conversation, but also really receptive.’Newsom has now revealed that the exchange carried particular significance because he had been haunted by a previous conversation about Polly’s murder – one with her father, Marc Klaas, in 2019.Just two months after taking office, the governor imposed a moratorium on executions in California, effectively shutting down the state’s death chamber and ordering condemned prisoners to be moved from the facility.Before announcing the moratorium, Newsom had met with Marc, who urged him not to suspend capital punishment.The governor said he told Klaas's sisters about that encounter and how much their father’s objections had stayed with him.But the women made clear that their own message deserved the same consideration.According to Newsom, one of the sisters looked directly at him and said, ‘Then don’t ever forget what we just said to you, and that sticks with you as long as his comments stuck with you.’ The sisters, now 45 and 39, delivered a message that left Newsom visibly struck - executing their sister’s killer would not have healed their family and they did not believe the state should kill in Polly’s nameThe governor said the moment had an almost spiritual effect on him. ‘That moment, for me, I was almost freed. It was spiritual,’ he recalled.But the decision has exposed a painful divide within Klaas’s own family, with her father taking a starkly different position from her sisters.Marc Klaas has remained fiercely opposed to Newsom’s handling of the death penalty and was unaware of the commutations when he spoke to the Chronicle on Wednesday.He described the prospect of the governor reducing the sentences of condemned killers as a ‘dastardly deed’.Marc said he had been left furious by Newsom’s decision to request a meeting with him in 2019, hear his objections and then impose the execution moratorium anyway.‘I guess if Gavin Newsom wants to commute the baby killers, the cop killers and the serial killers, the absolute dregs of our society, then that’s his business,’ he uttered scathingly.‘He is giving more consideration and compassion to these people – and I use that term people loosely - than any of them ever did to their victims.’The contrasting views of Klaas’s father and sisters lay bare the agonizing divide among victims’ families over capital punishment, for some, execution represents justice, while for others it offers no healing at all. In the years since Newsom’s moratorium, which was implemented just two months after he was sworn in and effectively closed the death chamber as well as ordered the rehousing of all the condemned men at San Quentin, Marc Klaas, Polly's father (pictured) has harshly criticized the governor’s decisions Klaas's father, who is pictured embracing Polly's friends Annette Schott in front of a mural they had painted for her, was more then dismayed at the news of the commuted sentence describing it as a 'betrayal to the victims'Newsom acknowledged that his decision would cause profound distress to families who had spent years believing their loved ones’ killers would eventually face execution.In a letter to Californians on Thursday, he described the commutations as ‘among the most difficult of my career’.‘My version of justice is someone’s version of injustice,’ he told the Chronicle.Nevertheless, commuting all 547 death sentences marks one of the most consequential exercises of executive power in modern California history.The state has not executed a prisoner since 2006, following a series of legal challenges and, more recently, Newsom’s 2019 moratorium.The governor’s decision also comes as he prepares to leave office in January because of term limits, amid growing speculation about a possible presidential run in 2028.The Daily Mail has reached out to the Klaas family and Newsom's office for comment.