Leslie Van Houten

[Saboburns]

26. An older article from 1995 but it shows how many murderes in CA do make parole

Why Should Murderers Get Parole? : Three-quarters of convicted killers in California are released, sometimes after just 13 years

May 23, 1995|MITCHELL KEITER | Mitchell Keiter is a California deputy attorney general. This article represents his personal view only.



In 1971, Jose Morales murdered his girlfriend in Los Angeles. After trial and conviction, a court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Three months after his release in 1980, he murdered his new wife. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Morales was not entitled to a new parole hearing every year, only every third year. The real question is why people like Morales are eligible for parole at all.

Most people know that the Los Angeles Country District Attorney had to choose between seeking the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole in prosecuting O.J. Simpson. Few people know that had there been only one victim, California sentencing rules would have prevented prosecutors from seeking either sentence. This limitation is wrong; California should adopt the federal rule that any murder may be punished by permanent incarceration.

A 1993 Justice Department survey revealed that 59% of people polled considered death the proper punishment for murder; 29% preferred life without parole. Another 10% replied that punishment should depend on circumstances, while only 1% favored neither death nor life without parole.

So how does California punish its murderers? In 1994, courts sentenced 2.5% of the 911 defendants convicted of murder to death, 20.7% to life without parole and 76.7% to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. These "life" prisoners might receive parole after serving only 12 years and nine months.