Bill to Give Early Release To Prisoners Serving Life w/o Parole Back in CA Legislature

A bill that would give early release to some prisoners serving life without parole was removed from the inactive file on Monday, bringing it back to the state legislature after almost a year of sitting on the shelf in Sacramento.

Senate Bill 94, authored by Senator Dave Cortese (D-Los Gatos), would specifically authorize an individual serving a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a conviction in which one or more special circumstances were found to be true to petition for recall and resentencing if the offense occurred before June 5, 1990, and the individual has served at least 25 years in custody.

SB 94 would not allow parole in several circumstances, including if the individual was convicted of first degree murder of a peace officer. The bill would also authorize the court to modify the petitioner’s sentence to impose a lesser sentence and apply any changes in law that reduce sentences or provide for judicial discretion, or to vacate the petitioner’s conviction and impose judgment on a lesser included offense, as specified and require a court to consider and afford great weight to evidence offered by the petitioner to prove that specified mitigating circumstances are present.

Senator Cortese wrote the bill last year aiming to release elderly prisoners in the California prison system, especially if they have been proven to have rehabilitated after decades behind bars. He also argued that those after the age of 40 are less likely to commit violent acts and that violence at a young age and other factors should be in play when considering a parole for them.

In a statement last year, Cortese said that “SB 94 would allow a small population of the oldest incarcerated Californians to petition a judge for a parole hearing. People who could demonstrated their complete rehabilitation after decades in prison would face three levels of intense evaluation: the judge, the Board of Parole Hearings, and the Governor. Elder people who have turned their lives around after decades behind bars would have an opportunity to rejoin society instead of continuing to contribute to mass incarceration. It’s time to put these cases in line with California’s modern justice system.”

However, multiple law enforcement groups, DA organizations, and victim organizations quickly railed against the bill, saying that it would give a possibility of release to some of California’s most violent criminals of the past. Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward told the Globe last year that SB 94 would let many of these people back out on the streets.

Out of Inactive

“If this bill passes the Legislature and Governor Newsom signs it, they are telling you that there is no crime so violent, so depraved, or so heinous that grants perpetual protection of our society,” DA Ward said. “This bill is a sham and an affront to the people of California. This bill is a travesty to victims’ families. Victims and their families are told that life without parole means no leniency, and especially in a death sentence. But this bill completely undermines no leniency.”

SB 94 proved to be a divisive bill in Sacramento last year. Most Republican lawmakers and a few Democrats opposed the bill, but overwhelming Democratic support kept the bill rising through to Assembly subcommittees. However, support for the bill waned in August and September, leading lawmakers to shelve it in the inactive file in September 2023. For nearly a year, most in Sacramento thought that the bill was dead, especially because it came into odds against the slew of ‘tougher on crime’ bills that were introduced earlier in the year and kept SB 94 from being reactivated.

But on Monday, with only weeks to go until the end of the session, lawmakers brought back the bill. It is now eligible for a floor vote in the Assembly. However, the bills passage is in doubt, especially as lawmakers have been supporting more and more tougher on crime bills this year. Nonetheless, those opposing the bill quickly acted on Monday and Tuesday, sending letters to lawmakers urging them not to support the bill.

“We believe that this bill is not only unjust but also undermines the rule of law and the justice system in our country,” wrote Crime Victims United Chairwoman Harriet Salarno on Monday. “It would allow individuals who committed heinous crimes to potentially escape justice and receive reduced sentences, despite the severity of their offenses.”

Capitol staffer “Dana” added, “Everyone honestly thought that this bill was done for and that it would come back in a heavily amended way. Well, they proved us wrong. Inactive bills have the habit of doing this, but SB 94 was surprising because of how much the crime climate has changed in only a year. We’ll see what happens. If this does pass, a lot of families of crime victims are going to be very upset, and you do not want those people to oppose you if you are a politician.”

It is currently unknown when the next vote on SB 94 will occur.