Brown paroles more lifers than did predecessors
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, April 29, 2011
California's parole board doesn't find convicted murderers suitable for release very often. And when the board granted parole in recent years, the inmate usually found the governor waiting to bar the door.
But not Gov. Jerry Brown.
"I'm obviously going to interfere less with the parole board than my predecessors, because I'm bound to follow the law," Brown told The Chronicle. And the statistics from his first four months in office bear him out.
Brown has reviewed 130 decisions by the Board of Parole Hearings granting release to murderers sentenced to life with possible parole and has approved 106, or 81 percent, according to the governor's office. He has vetoed 22 paroles and sent two back to the board for new hearings.
In comparison, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved about 30 percent of lifers' paroles. Former Gov. Gray Davis - who declared early in his term that "if you take someone else's life, forget it" - vetoed 98 percent of murderers' parole cases he considered.
Shifting attitudes
Brown said that both Davis, who served as chief of staff in Brown's first term as governor in the 1970s, and Schwarzenegger failed to follow proper legal standards for reviewing paroles. But the governor also said his approach reflects shifts in sentencing practices, judicial rulings and public attitudes on crime.
"Now, you talk to people and they're worried about jobs," he said. "There's still public safety (as a concern), but there's different dominating issues."
For those who see crime as the overriding issue, Brown said, state records show that only a small fraction of the 900 life-sentenced prisoners paroled in the past 15 years have committed new crimes, compared with nearly 70 percent of other parolees.
The parole board, appointed by the governor and made up mostly of former law enforcement officers, sets release dates for inmates serving terms of up to life in prison, based on their crimes and the risk they pose to the public. A 1988 ballot measure gave the governor authority to veto lifers' paroles.
Board's rate climbs
Gov. Pete Wilson, the first to implement the law, rejected only 27 percent of the paroles he considered. But he dealt with only a handful of inmates, because the parole board granted release dates in fewer than 2 percent of the cases it heard during his tenure.
The board's approval rate has climbed slowly since then, reaching about 15 percent in each of the past two years.
The former police and probation officers on the board "are people very concerned about public safety" and not likely to release dangerous prisoners, said Brown, who has yet to appoint any members.
They're also entitled to deference, he said, because "the man or woman is in front of them (at the hearing). I just have paper."
Brown also said murderers are spending more time in prison than they used to. In 1988, he said, first-degree murderers were being paroled after less than 14 years, and second-degree murderers after only five years. The current averages are 30 years for first-degree murder and 24 years for second-degree, he said.
Older inmates
Some of the prisoners whose cases he reviews are now in their late 60s or 70s, he said, and "time makes a difference."
Brown, who ran twice for president while governor from 1975 to 1983, is also older now and no longer interested in higher office.
"At this stage of my life, I think I can apply a more objective standard than those who are perhaps looking for further political pastures to wander in," he said.
The ground rules also changed in 2008 when the state Supreme Court reinstated the parole board's decision to release Sandra Lawrence, who had spent 24 years in prison for killing her lover's wife.
Wilson, Davis and Schwarzenegger had all vetoed the board's decisions to parole Lawrence, relying mainly on the circumstances of her crime. But the Supreme Court said the governor had to show that Lawrence was still dangerous to justify blocking parole.
The grim details of a long-ago crime generally are not enough to outweigh good behavior in prison and an inmate's psychological reports, the court said.
'Rebuke' to governors
The ruling was "a rebuke to the executive branch," Brown said. "The Supreme Court felt that the law was not being applied properly."
Schwarzenegger continued to veto parole releases at about the same rate, usually concluding that the inmate "lacked insight" into his crimes and was likely to repeat them, a rationale that the Supreme Court had upheld. But lower courts have overturned dozens of his decisions, finding no evidence to support them.
Brown has used similar reasoning in some of his parole vetoes.
In one case, he said a man who beat and strangled his 81-year-old grandmother in 1988 had failed to take responsibility for his actions because he still claimed it was a mercy killing. Brown reached the same conclusion for a man who was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1991 but told a psychologist he had inflicted only minor wounds.
But in most cases, the governor said, he examines the same record the board reviewed - the inmate's prison behavior, participation in job training and education programs, age, length of imprisonment and psychological assessment - and reaches the same conclusion.
Donald Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office, which represents many inmates, said Brown's perspective is long overdue.
"The presumption should be that the parole board has more information, has seen the prisoner ... and the governor shouldn't reverse it unless he thought they made some serious mistake," Specter said.
Compared with his predecessors, he said, Brown has "a more enlightened approach."
Parole rates
California governors' rates of upholding parole board decisions to release murderers serving life sentences with the possibility of parole:
Pete Wilson (1991-99): 73 percent.
Gray Davis (1999-2003): 2 percent.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (2003-2011): 30 percent.
Jerry Brown (January 2011-present): 81 percent.
Source: Governor's office
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/29/MNUA1J991B.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, April 29, 2011
California's parole board doesn't find convicted murderers suitable for release very often. And when the board granted parole in recent years, the inmate usually found the governor waiting to bar the door.
But not Gov. Jerry Brown.
"I'm obviously going to interfere less with the parole board than my predecessors, because I'm bound to follow the law," Brown told The Chronicle. And the statistics from his first four months in office bear him out.
Brown has reviewed 130 decisions by the Board of Parole Hearings granting release to murderers sentenced to life with possible parole and has approved 106, or 81 percent, according to the governor's office. He has vetoed 22 paroles and sent two back to the board for new hearings.
In comparison, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved about 30 percent of lifers' paroles. Former Gov. Gray Davis - who declared early in his term that "if you take someone else's life, forget it" - vetoed 98 percent of murderers' parole cases he considered.
Shifting attitudes
Brown said that both Davis, who served as chief of staff in Brown's first term as governor in the 1970s, and Schwarzenegger failed to follow proper legal standards for reviewing paroles. But the governor also said his approach reflects shifts in sentencing practices, judicial rulings and public attitudes on crime.
"Now, you talk to people and they're worried about jobs," he said. "There's still public safety (as a concern), but there's different dominating issues."
For those who see crime as the overriding issue, Brown said, state records show that only a small fraction of the 900 life-sentenced prisoners paroled in the past 15 years have committed new crimes, compared with nearly 70 percent of other parolees.
The parole board, appointed by the governor and made up mostly of former law enforcement officers, sets release dates for inmates serving terms of up to life in prison, based on their crimes and the risk they pose to the public. A 1988 ballot measure gave the governor authority to veto lifers' paroles.
Board's rate climbs
Gov. Pete Wilson, the first to implement the law, rejected only 27 percent of the paroles he considered. But he dealt with only a handful of inmates, because the parole board granted release dates in fewer than 2 percent of the cases it heard during his tenure.
The board's approval rate has climbed slowly since then, reaching about 15 percent in each of the past two years.
The former police and probation officers on the board "are people very concerned about public safety" and not likely to release dangerous prisoners, said Brown, who has yet to appoint any members.
They're also entitled to deference, he said, because "the man or woman is in front of them (at the hearing). I just have paper."
Brown also said murderers are spending more time in prison than they used to. In 1988, he said, first-degree murderers were being paroled after less than 14 years, and second-degree murderers after only five years. The current averages are 30 years for first-degree murder and 24 years for second-degree, he said.
Older inmates
Some of the prisoners whose cases he reviews are now in their late 60s or 70s, he said, and "time makes a difference."
Brown, who ran twice for president while governor from 1975 to 1983, is also older now and no longer interested in higher office.
"At this stage of my life, I think I can apply a more objective standard than those who are perhaps looking for further political pastures to wander in," he said.
The ground rules also changed in 2008 when the state Supreme Court reinstated the parole board's decision to release Sandra Lawrence, who had spent 24 years in prison for killing her lover's wife.
Wilson, Davis and Schwarzenegger had all vetoed the board's decisions to parole Lawrence, relying mainly on the circumstances of her crime. But the Supreme Court said the governor had to show that Lawrence was still dangerous to justify blocking parole.
The grim details of a long-ago crime generally are not enough to outweigh good behavior in prison and an inmate's psychological reports, the court said.
'Rebuke' to governors
The ruling was "a rebuke to the executive branch," Brown said. "The Supreme Court felt that the law was not being applied properly."
Schwarzenegger continued to veto parole releases at about the same rate, usually concluding that the inmate "lacked insight" into his crimes and was likely to repeat them, a rationale that the Supreme Court had upheld. But lower courts have overturned dozens of his decisions, finding no evidence to support them.
Brown has used similar reasoning in some of his parole vetoes.
In one case, he said a man who beat and strangled his 81-year-old grandmother in 1988 had failed to take responsibility for his actions because he still claimed it was a mercy killing. Brown reached the same conclusion for a man who was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1991 but told a psychologist he had inflicted only minor wounds.
But in most cases, the governor said, he examines the same record the board reviewed - the inmate's prison behavior, participation in job training and education programs, age, length of imprisonment and psychological assessment - and reaches the same conclusion.
Donald Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office, which represents many inmates, said Brown's perspective is long overdue.
"The presumption should be that the parole board has more information, has seen the prisoner ... and the governor shouldn't reverse it unless he thought they made some serious mistake," Specter said.
Compared with his predecessors, he said, Brown has "a more enlightened approach."
Parole rates
California governors' rates of upholding parole board decisions to release murderers serving life sentences with the possibility of parole:
Pete Wilson (1991-99): 73 percent.
Gray Davis (1999-2003): 2 percent.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (2003-2011): 30 percent.
Jerry Brown (January 2011-present): 81 percent.
Source: Governor's office
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/29/MNUA1J991B.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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