District attorney condemns governor’s commutation of all California death sentences

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow on Thursday sharply condemned Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to commute all 548 death sentences in California to life sentences, a move that directly affects two of the region's most notorious murder cases — including the torture and killing of a Paso Robles toddler.

In a statement first reported by Paso Robles Daily News, Dow called the governor's blanket clemency action "a sickening abuse of power" and accused Newsom of signaling that the lives of condemned killers "matter more" than those of their victims.

"Governor Newsom just told the families of Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford, Kesha Gurke and every other innocent victim of California's 548 condemned killers that the killers' lives matter more," Dow said. "Juries chose justice case by case, voters chose it five times, and one outgoing governor is trying to erase it all with a pen."

The local cases at the center of the dispute

Dow highlighted three San Luis Obispo County victims. Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford were young women who, according to Dow, were kidnapped, raped and murdered in the county by Rex Allan Krebs. The California Supreme Court upheld Krebs's death sentence in 2020, as the Paso Robles Daily News previously reported.

The third victim, Kesha Gurke, was a 19-month-old Paso Robles girl who Dow said was tortured and murdered by Michael Whisenhunt. A San Luis Obispo County jury sentenced Whisenhunt to death, and the state Supreme Court affirmed the judgment.

For North County residents, the Gurke case is the local anchor of a statewide story — a crime committed in Paso Robles that now sits at the center of a constitutional fight over clemency in Sacramento.

Dow's critique: 'not a single victim named'

A central element of Dow's statement was his complaint about what the governor's commutation letter left out. Dow said Newsom's three-page letter did not name a single victim, and that the same was true of the 57 clemency grants the governor issued the month before.

"Honoring victims starts with saying their names," Dow said.

Dow also emphasized the legal process behind each death sentence, arguing the governor was erasing decisions reached through decades of judicial scrutiny. Each sentence, he said, came only after a jury found at least one special circumstance to be true, a separate penalty trial, review by a trial judge and an automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court.

He pointed to the ballot box as well, noting that California voters restored the death penalty in 1972, expanded it in 1978, and declined to repeal it in both 2012 and 2016.

A possible constitutional roadblock

Dow indicated the fight may not be over. Under the California Constitution, a governor cannot commute the sentence of a person who has been twice convicted of a felony unless the California Supreme Court recommends the commutation, with four justices concurring.

Dow said both Krebs and Whisenhunt are twice-convicted felons, which could place their commutations — and potentially many others — outside the governor's unilateral authority. He called on the justices to examine each case individually on its own facts and to hear from victims' families and prosecutors before issuing any recommendation.

Dow had urged the governor to reject a blanket commutation as recently as October, according to prior coverage by the Paso Robles Daily News.

What it means for victims' families here

The district attorney closed his statement with a message aimed directly at grieving families in San Luis Obispo County and across the state.

"To the families of Rachel, Aundria, and Kesha, and to every family of a murder victim in California: you have not been forgotten," Dow said. "This office has stood with you from the day your loved one was taken, and we will continue to stand with you now."

For Paso Robles residents, the immediate practical effect of the commutations — should they stand — would be converting the death sentences of the men convicted in these local cases to life sentences. Whether all 548 commutations take effect, however, may now depend on how the California Supreme Court handles cases involving twice-convicted felons, a question Dow has publicly asked the court to take up case by case.

Dow's full statement is available on the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's website. As the legal process plays out, further coverage of how the commutations affect local cases will follow.