According to the list of matters to be considered at tomorrow’s Supreme Court conference, the court will be ruling on Governor Newsom’s requests to allow him to commute the life without parole sentences of Ly Nguyen (see here) and Kenneth Smith (see here). The justices are also expected to decide whether to recommend pardons, as Newsom requested, for Laura Rodriguez (see here) and Phi Le (see here).
A court recommendation is a constitutional prerequisite to the Governor granting clemency to anyone who has been “twice convicted of a felony.”
Applying a deferential standard (see here and here), the court has previously approved all 22 Newsom requests for commutations of LWOP sentences (not counting pending requests) (see, recently, here) and, in fact, has not denied any of his more than 100 clemency recommendation requests. Newsom has not sought clemency for any death row inmates, but he’s thinking about it. (See here and here.)
