Governor Newsom yesterday asked the Supreme Court to recommend five sentence commutations, three of which are sentences of life without parole. The court in 2018 blocked one of the LWOP commutations Newsom is now seeking.
A court recommendation is a constitutional prerequisite for a gubernatorial grant of clemency to anyone who has been “twice convicted of a felony.”
The five, with their criminal records as stated in the Governor’s cover letters to the court, are:
Kenny Lee: “In 2000, Mr. Lee was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. In 1991, Mr. Lee sustained a felony conviction for assault with a firearm.”
This is the one that is essentially a petition for rehearing. When Governor Jerry Brown asked for approval to commute Lee’s sentence, the court denied the request eight years ago. Also, in 2023, the court denied as untimely a motion Lee filed to unseal the record regarding the unsuccessful request.
Lee’s chances appear better now, however. This is the third time Newsom has asked permission to commute an LWOP sentence after the court had turned down a Brown request for the same person, and the court granted both previous repeat requests, for Howard Ford and Elaine Wong.
Kenneth Smith: “In 2011, Mr. Smith was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. In 2008, Mr. Smith sustained a prior felony conviction for carrying a concealed weapon.”
Gerald Ellis: “In 2007, Mr. Ellis was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. In 2003, Mr. Ellis sustained a prior felony conviction for attempted larceny.”
David Sanchez: “In 2009, Mr. Sanchez was convicted of robbery. He was sentenced to a prison term of 41 years to life. In 1998, Mr. Sanchez sustained a felony conviction, also for robbery.”
Anthony Hill: “In 2003, Mr. Hill was convicted of robbery. He was sentenced to a prison term of 43 years and 8 months. Mr. Hill has prior felony convictions for burglary (1985, 1987), robbery (1990), assault on a peace officer/fireman (1990), and sell/furnish marijuana/hash (1995).”
The commutations wouldn’t require any prisoner releases, at least not right away. Rather, the Governor told the court that, for each of the three LWOPs, he “is contemplating a commutation of sentence that would make [the prisoner] eligible for a parole suitability hearing,” and for each of the other two, he is contemplating “eligib[ility] for an earlier parole suitability hearing.” (Related: “Newsom grants clemency, but freedom isn’t certain”.)
The court has previously approved 16 Newsom requests for commutations of LWOP sentences. He has not sought clemency for any death row inmates. (See here.) There are four other LWOP commutation requests pending. (See here.)
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 94 of his other requests (not counting pending 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.
The Governor’s requests were filed under seal. They will remain shielded from the public unless someone moves to unseal the records. If a motion is filed, the court will likely require Newsom to justify keeping all or part of the records under wraps and will then probably make redacted records available for viewing. (See here and here, and recently, here.) LWOP commutation requests often draw unseal motions from the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
Related:
Justice Liu invites resubmission of clemency requests that the Supreme Court rejected
Motions fail to pry loose Supreme Court’s clemency denial reasons
