Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of California. However, the penalty has not been carried out in that state since 2006, due to a standing federal court order issued that year against the practice, and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze conclude, executions could resume under the current state law.
The state carried out 709 executions from 1778 until 1972 when the California Supreme Court struck down California's capital punishment statute in the case People v. Anderson.