Newsom’s CA Death Row Clemency Revives Painful Memories

PETALUMA, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to replace California’s 548 death sentences with life imprisonment without parole would spare Richard Allen Davis, whose murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas helped reshape California’s sentencing laws.

Davis kidnapped Polly at knifepoint in Petaluma in 1993, and murdered her. A Santa Clara County court sentenced him to death in 1996.

Newsom announced his clemency decision Nov. 5, citing his moral opposition to capital punishment. In an open letter to Californians, he argued that executions undermine justice and human decency.

“State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,” he wrote.

The decision could eliminate roughly one-quarter of the nation’s death sentences, the New York Times reported. California has not executed anyone since 2006.

1993

More than 500 other names appear on California’s condemned inmate list, but Polly Klaas’ murder helped reshape the state’s sentencing laws, driving support for harsher penalties for repeat offenders.

Davis was on parole when kidnapped Polly Klaas at knifepoint from a slumber party in Petaluma on Oct. 1, 1993, and murdered her.

Her murder intensified California’s tough-on-crime politics, fueling demands to keep repeat offenders behind bars longer. Davis’ violent criminal history and parole status helped build support for the Three Strikes law in 1994.

Lawmakers enacted the sentencing measure, and voters approved a parallel initiative.

The law generally doubled prison terms for a new felony after one serious or violent felony conviction and imposed at least 25 years to life after two qualifying convictions, even when the new felony was nonviolent.

Voters narrowed the law in 2012, generally requiring a serious or violent third offense for a life sentence, with exceptions.

Voters have narrowed those laws, while some of Polly’s family reconsidered whether harsher punishment could bring justice or help them heal.

Her father, Marc Klaas, told The New York Times that the decision revived painful emotions and left him feeling “raw and angry.”

Her stepsister, Jess Nichol, supported the commutations after meeting with Newsom in October. Nichol once supported executing Allen but now believes resources that help survivors heal offer more than capital punishment, the Times reported.

Legal challenges could delay the commutations. Former Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told the Times she planned to sue, arguing that officials must consider each case separately.

More than half the proposed sentence reductions require California Supreme Court approval because the prisoners have multiple felony convictions.

Other legal experts said the court could consider those requests together if Newsom based them on his moral opposition to executions, according to the Times article.

Death penalty opponents planned a national advertising campaign praising the decision, the newspaper reported.

Condemned

Other governors have granted broad clemency, but California’s numbers surpass earlier actions. According to the Times article, the previous largest mass commutation in modern American history came in 2003, when Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted death sentences for 167 prisoners.

The cases on CDCR’s condemned inmate list span California, sometimes connecting communities to sentencing courtrooms hundreds of miles from the crimes.

Another Sonoma County case involved Ramon Salcido, who murdered seven people in 1989: his wife, two daughters, three other relatives, and a winery coworker.

A San Mateo County court sentenced him to death in 1990. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the California Supreme Court upheld his convictions and death sentence.

Joseph Naso murdered four women whose bodies authorities found in Marin, Contra Costa, and Yuba counties between 1977 and 1994.

A Marin County judge sentenced him in 2013, imposing death sentences for the murders of Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons, and Tracy Tafoya, and a life sentence for the murder of Roxene Roggasch.

Cary Stayner’s 1999 murders of three Yosemite tourists and nature guide Joie Armstrong spread fear through the region. Investigators initially ruled out the motel handyman before arresting him after Armstrong’s killing. He received a death sentence for the tourists’ murders and a separate federal life sentence for Armstrong’s murder.

Charles Ng’s case centered on a property in Wilseyville, Calaveras County. Ng and Leonard Lake committed 11 murders during a Northern California killing spree in 1984 and 1985. An Orange County court sentenced Ng to death in 1999.

On the Central Coast, Rex Krebs kidnapped, raped, and murdered Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford in San Luis Obispo County in 1998 and 1999. A court in that county sentenced him to death in 2001.

Southern California cases include Randy Kraft, whom a jury convicted of murdering 16 men. An Orange County court sentenced him to death in 1989. Investigators connected his crimes to victims whose bodies were discarded along freeways.

Daniel Wozniak murdered Samuel “Sam” Herr in Los Alamitos for money in 2010, then murdered Juri “Julie” Kibuishi in Costa Mesa to frame Herr and divert investigators. An Orange County court sentenced him to death in 2016.

Chester Turner received death sentences in Los Angeles County in 2007 and 2014 for murdering 14 women. Separate trials covered 10 murders and four additional killings.

In San Diego County, David Westerfield kidnapped and murdered his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam, in 2002. A judge sentenced him to death in 2003.