The Supreme Court today recommended that Governor Newsom commute the life without parole sentences of Ly Nguyen and Kenneth Smith and that he pardon Laura Rodriguez and Phi Le.
Newsom requested the recommendations, which are a constitutional prerequisite to granting clemency to anyone who has been “twice convicted of a felony.”
The four clemency recommendation beneficiaries’ criminal histories as reported in the Governor’s requests are:
Nguyen: “In 1995, Mr. Nguyen was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole. In 1998, Mr. Nguyen sustained a prior [sic] felony conviction for attempted burglary.”
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.”
Rodriguez: “In 1996, Ms. Rodriguez was convicted of second degree robbery. In 2007, Ms. Rodriguez was convicted of possessing an identification card to commit forgery.”
Le: “In 1991, Mr. Le was convicted of assault with a firearm on a person. In 1994, Mr. Le was convicted of second degree robbery. In 2025, Mr. Le’s conviction was withdrawn and vacated, the complaint was reinstated, Mr. Le was convicted of kidnapping and false imprisonment, and his sentence was deemed served.”
The LWOP commutations won’t lead to Nguyen’s or Smith’s release, at least not right away. Rather, the Governor told the court in his recommendation requests that he “is contemplating a commutation of sentence that would make [each prisoner] eligible for a parole suitability hearing.” (Related: “Newsom grants clemency, but freedom isn’t certain”.) The court’s recommendation letters in the past have typically quoted the Governor’s contemplation, suggesting the court might not have gone along with the commutations if it meant the prisoners would immediately walk free.
The Governor’s requests also reported that the Board of Parole Hearings had previously made “favorable recommendation[s]” to Newsom for all four clemency grants.
Including today’s rulings, the court has now approved 24 Newsom requests for commutations of LWOP sentences. He has not sought clemency for any death row inmates, but he might do so in the near future. (See here and here.)
Overall, 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 113 of his other requests. (Not counting 11 requests that are still pending, including four more LWOP commutation requests.) That’s better than former Governor 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.
In August, the court made public redacted versions of Nguyen’s and Smith’s clemency files after the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office moved to unseal the files. No part of the files would have been available absent the motions. (See here and here.) No unseal motions were made regarding Rodriguez’s or Le’s files.
