Thanks to a Nov. 5 action by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 548 inmates on the state's death row will have their sentences commuted to life in prison, as he moves to clear death row.

"I have decided to commute every death sentence," killed four people near Yosemite National Park.

Stayner, a handyman at the nearby Cedar Lodge, murdered Carole Sund, 42. He also murdered and sexually assaulted her daughter Juli, 15, and killed family friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16.

Months later, he beheaded a 26-year-old nature guide identified as Joie Armstrong.

In 2002, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge sentenced Stayner to death for the murders of Sund and the teen girls. He was already serving a life sentence for murdering Armstrong.

Stayner first became notable as the older brother of Steven Stayner, who escaped a 1972 kidnapping in 1980.

Between 1987 and 1998, Chester Turner raped and murdered low-income women in South Los Angeles, often abandoning their bodies in dark alleys or vacant lots.

Authorities arrested Turner in 2003, following a DNA database matching him to the victims. He became known as the "Southside Slayer" after targeting women in the South Figueroa Street corridor, between Gage Avenue and 108th Street in Los Angeles County.

In 2007, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Turner to death for killing 10 women. In 2014, he received another death sentence for the killings of four additional women.

In 2011, Christopher Cheary murdered, raped, and tortured Sophia Acosta, identified as his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter. The incident happened while he babysat Sophia and her sister at an Exeter apartment.

The child’s mother, who was not charged in the case, reported the crime after finding Sophia unconscious with head wounds. Medical staff later testified finding internal trauma on the victim, including signs of sexual torture.

Following a 2016 conviction, a Tulare County Superior Court judge sentenced Cheary to death in 2017.

Between 1971 and 1983, Randy Kraft raped, tortured, and killed at least 16 hitchhikers and young men across Southern California, although authorities believe he murdered over 60 people.

He became known as the "Scorecard Killer" after investigators found a scorecard in his vehicle, listing victims with the locations of bodies written in code. Kraft’s killing spree ended in 1983, when California Highway Patrol officers pulled him over and found deceased Marine Terry Lee Gambrelin in his vehicle, in the front passenger seat.

Authorities linked 43 victims to coded handwriting on the scorecard, but chose to charge Kraft with 16, to narrow the burden of proof.

In 1989, an Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Kraft to death.

In 2013, Isauro Aguirre and his girlfriend Pearl Fernandez killed 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez after torturing him for eight months in a Palmdale residence.

The torture, in part, included depriving Gabriel of food, beating him, forcing him to eat cat feces, and locking him alone in a cabinet, with a sock shoved inside his mouth.

In 2018, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Aguirre to death, while Fernandez received life in prison without parole.

Between 1983 and 1985, Charles abducted, tortured and murdered at least 11 people. The murders took place at a remote cabin, known as "The Castle" in Calaveras County.

In 1989, an Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Ng to death. Leonard Lake, a co-conspirator who committed the crimes with Ng, died by suicide during a police stand-off in 1985.

Between 1980 and 1981, David Carpenter, also known as the "Trailside Killer," raped and murdered at least seven hikers in Marin County and Santa Cruz.

In 1984, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Carpenter to death for the Santa Cruz murders. In 1988, a San Diego County Superior Court judge sentenced him to death for the Marin County crimes.

Cherie Rhoades, the former leader of a small Northern California Indian tribe, fatally shot four people and tried to kill two more at a tribal meeting over her eviction in 2014.

She was sentenced to death in 2017.