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LOS ANGELES – Thomas Yackley fatally stabbed two men at a party. Kimberly LaBore participated in a home invasion that ended with the death of one person. Virgil Holt killed his boss in a fast food restaurant shortly after his dismissal.
All are among the 20 murderers serving life sentences recently commuted by California Governor Jerry Brown (D). Barely four months later, the most senior governor of California forgives to record the number of criminals.
Brown has donated more than 1,100 graces to a wide range of people, including those found guilty of drug trafficking, drunk driving and forgery. The count is incredibly greater than the totals of its immediate predecessors. Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded 15 pardons and Democrat Gray Davis finished with zero.
What is perhaps more remarkable is commutations, which grant parole hearings to offenders who previously had never had the opportunity to receive parole, often granting them early release. Brown has published 82 in the last seven years, far more than any California governor since at least the 1940s. The country's criminal justice reformers praise him. Victims' rights advocates are livid.
"2018 is the worst year I have ever seen," said Patricia Wenskunas, Founder and Executive Director of the Crime Survivors Resource Center. "The sad reality is that California is not a victim-friendly state. It is an offender-friendly state. "
California was once a leader in anti-crime policies, which turned its prisons into inmate warehouses. In 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled that overcrowding in the state's prison system was cruel and unusual punishment. The decision accelerated a wave of legal reforms that reduced the prison population by 25%. Approximately 115,000 detainees remain locked up in 33 state facilities. The vast majority of those released to date are non-violent offenders.
Brown's commutations for the 20 convicted of murder were concealed in a larger batch of pardons and commutations he handed over last month. The designation is not synonymous with freedom but is equivalent to a reduction of an original sentence. For these 20 men and women, most of whom have been sentenced to life without parole, that means they will be heard.
The governor sees his action not as a sign of clemency but as a correction of the societal path. "There has been a time pass that many people have been waiting for [criminals] to be locked in a cage or cell, "he said in an interview.
In the 1970s, those convicted of first degree murder tended to serve about 10 years for their crimes, he noted. now it is not unusual that such sentences extend for half a century. Some 5,000 prisoners are serving life sentences without parole in California today.
Long-time prisoners who make a bona fide effort to change their lives should try to get out of it, said Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian. "I think it's wise to have the opportunity to hope."
Nazgol Ghandnoosh, research analyst at the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based criminal justice group, said she had never seen such a bold move to spur the early release of those convicted of violent crimes.
"It really stands out," she added – in a good way, she added. Prisoners serving sentences for such offenses tend to extricate themselves from crime. "As a country, we must move away from life without parole as a punishment."
Many California lawmakers and public safety officials have a very different view of the governor's decision. Michele Hanisee, president of the Los Angeles District Attorneys Association, said the latest switches "are motivated by [Brown’s] personal philosophy of extrication ". And Republican MP Matthew Harper of Orange County described the commutations as "deeply worrying. That's another Brown Governor action in a long line of conduct that makes California less safe.
For defenders of victims' rights, commutations are an injustice.
"Governor Brown, can you commute with my daughter and bring her back?" Said Jennifer Lundy, 3, who was killed in 1993 by a man living with her family. "What did you do to restore my life?"
It is unclear whether the purge of California prisons and Brown's decisions have made the state less secure. In addition to pardons and commutations, the governor approved the conditional release of more than 2,300 "life-sentenced" convicted murderers. (California is one of three states where the governor has the final say on parole board decisions.)
Yet, while the rate of violent crime increased by almost 4% in 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, it still accounted for half of the record levels seen in the early 1990s, according to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California. .
Brown also rejected parole for people whose sentences he commuted. In 1994, Susan Lee Russo of Fresno County paid $ 100 to a man to kill her husband so that she could collect insurance. Russo asserted in her leniency application that her husband, who had been shot in the head, physically assaulted her.
"I was protecting and protecting my children," she wrote, according to the Associated Press.
The parole board recommended his release, triggering an outcry from a group of Republican lawmakers and law enforcement officials. Russo's own daughters have called her a "master manipulator." Brown concluded that she "had more work to do."
These days, the only survivor of Yackley, who has been the scene of rampage, is thinking of a second chance and the future potential of his attacker.
At the end of that night in February 1992, Glenn McCarty approached Yackley, 22, and his friends at a party to tell them they were not welcome. When McCarty returned to go, Yackley stabbed him in the back and, in the ensuing melee, stabbed two other men.
The blade collapsed into both of McCarty's lungs. His friends died on the scene.
McCarty, now 54, said he felt no anger towards Yackley, who graduated from high school equivalency, attended vocational training courses, volunteered in an organization that saves dogs
"It's probably questionable that he's had a more positive influence on society than me," said McCarty, a trucking company supervisor in the southwestern United States. "If he was eligible for parole while he was doing it, I would think maybe he had an ulterior motive and I would consider that." But I do not think he's done it.
He hesitates, however, if Yackley deserves parole.
"He's done more for the company in a positive way," McCarty said Tuesday, "the fact is that Dave and Mike have not had that chance."
Read more:
Ultimately, Liberal Reformers Take Control of Criminal Justice
Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman whose case was defended by Kim Kardashian
Why Governor Jerry Brown pardoned 5 ex-inmates who risked being deported, pulling Trump's anger
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