The Supreme Court today recommended that Governor Gavin Newsom commute the life-without-parole sentence of Laurence Perry. The recommendation, made at Newsom’s request in October of last year, is a constitutional prerequisite to the clemency, as it is for anyone who has been “twice convicted of a felony.”
The Governor’s request said, “In 1997, Mr. Perry was convicted of first degree murder with a sentence enhancement. He was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. In 1992, Mr. Perry sustained a prior felony conviction for possess/purchase drugs.”
The commutation won’t lead to Perry’s release, at least not right away. Rather, the Governor told the court he “is contemplating a commutation of sentence that would make Mr. Perry eligible for a parole suitability hearing.” (Related: “Newsom grants clemency, but freedom isn’t certain”.) We haven’t seen the recommendation letter yet, but the court typically quotes the Governor’s “contemplat[ion],” suggesting the court would not have gone along with the commutation if it meant the prisoner would immediately walk free.
Newsom has a nearly perfect clemency record: he withdrew one request before a ruling, but the court — applying a deferential standard (see here and here) — has approved all 92 of his other requests. That’s better than former Governor Jerry Brown, who had the court without explanation block 10 intended clemency grants. The denial of a request implies that a clemency grant would be an abuse of power.
Including Perry, the court has approved 16 Newsom requests for commutations of LWOP sentences. He has not sought clemency for any death row inmates. (See here.) Notably, two of those 16 requests were approved after the court had denied earlier requests by Governor Brown for the same people. (See here and here.)
The court last month made public a redacted version of Perry’s clemency file after the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office filed a motion to unseal the file. None of the file would have been available absent the motion. (See here and here.)
